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Briet Course Series in Lducation 
EDITED BY 


PAUL MONROE 


FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 
INFORMAL TALKS ON TEACHING 


Brief Course Series tn Boucation 


EDITED BY 


PAUL MONROE, PuH.D., LL.D. 


BRIEF COURSE IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 


PauL Monrokg, PH.D., LL.D., Professor of Education and 
Director of International Institute, Teachers College, Colum- 
bia University. 


BRIEF COURSE IN THE TEACHING PROCESS 


GEORGE D. STRAYER, PH.D., Professor of Educational 
Administration, Teachers College, Columbia University. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD 


Naomi NorsworrnHy, Pu.D., formerly Associate Professor 
of Educational Psychology, and MARY THEODORA WHITLEY, 
Pu.D., Assistant Professor of Education, Teachers College, 
Columbia University. 


SCHOOL HYGIENE 


FLETCHER B. DRESSLAR, PH.D., Professor of Health Edu- 
cation, George !'cabody College for Teachers, Nashville. 


PRINCIPLES OF SOCICLOGY WITH EDUCATIONAL 
APPLICATIONS 


FREDERICK R. CLow, PH.D., Teacher in the State Normal 
School, Oshkosh. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUBNORMAL CHILDREN 


Lera S. HOLLINGWoRTH, PH.D., Associate Professor of 
Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. 


VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 


DAVID SNEDDEN, PuH.D., Professor of Education, Teachers 
College, Columbia University. 


FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD: INFORMAL TALKS ON 
TEACHING 
WILLIAM HEARD KILPATRICK, PH.D., Professor of Edu- 
cation, Teachers College, Columbia University. 








FOUNDATIONS OF METHO 


Informal Talks on Teaching 


BY 


WILLIAM HEARD KILPATRICK 


PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, TEACHERS COLLEGS 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 


Rew Work 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1926 


All rights reserved 


Coprricat, 1925, 
Br THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 


Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1925 
Reprinted August, December, 1925; May, 1926; 
December, 1926. 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


L. H. JENKINS, INC, 
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 


TO 
THE MEMORY OF 


MY MOTHER 


BARLIEST AND BEST OF MY TEACHERS 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/foundationsofmet0Okilp 


PREFACE 


This book is based on a course which I have been giving 
for a number of years under the name of “‘ Foundations of 
Method.” Its aim is, accordingly, not to present details 
of specific method procedures, but rather to discuss the 
principles on which method in general may be founded. 

Among the conceptions that determine the trend of the 
discussion, two stand out prominently: first, that the indi- 
vidual of whatever age, being complex, responds in many 
varied ways as he reacts to a stimulating situation and 
that education must care for all these responses; second, 
that there must be considered the dominating part played by 
the individual’s mind-set or attitude in determining what 
varied responses he shall make and which of these are 
to be fixed as habit in his character. Method, in conse- 
quence, becomes then much more than a question of how 
a child best learns any one thing, as spelling or silent read- 
ing. Such inquiries are good and proper but they do not 
suffice. Method must look further. In particular the 
broader outlook upon method asks how the parent or 
teacher shall so manage the total situation confronting the 
living child as to call out the most and best of all his inner 
resources and how then to guide the ensuing experience so 
that the aggregate learning results of knowledge, attitudes, 
habits, and skills shall be best. Among these learning 
results, attitudes and habits here receive emphatic atten- 
tion, because they have heretofore been too much over- 
looked. 

For the solution of this broader problem of method the 


vu 


Vill PREFACE 


element of purpose is herein presented as a factor having 
peculiar value, promising as it does at one and the same 
time to call out the child’s available resources, to direct 
and organize his varied responses, and, by the resulting 
satisfactions and annoyances from success and failure, to 
fix in his character the learning results properly accruing. 

How method thus conceived becomes probably the great- 
est essential factor in moral character building need not 
here be elaborated, nor its consequent significance in the 
very insistent problem of adjusting our total educational 
scheme more effectually to the demands of democracy and 
of a changing world. However, it may not be out of place 
to say that the conception of method here presented finds 
its proper position in an educational philosophy which 
consciously intends to look these demands of modern life 
squarely in the face. It may be added that, in such a phi- 
losophy, method and curriculum will be found more in- 
herently related than is usually conceived. 

No particular age of learner is here contemplated. The 
considerations urged are believed to apply to all ages — 
to all who can learn. Nor is the work directed solely to 
teachers, actual or prospective. It should appeal as truly 
to parents and to any who lead others. ‘To some teachers 
it may seem unfortunate that the discussions are not more 
explicitly directed to ordinary school work. A partial re- 
joinder is that the contentions here made would, if ad- 
mitted, demand a different type of school. 

It would be ungrateful not to mention my indebtedness 
to those whose teachings have most helped to make the 
ideas here presented — Spencer, James, Dewey, Thorndike, 
and Woodworth. Their ideas, particularly those of Dewey 
and Thorndike, permeate these pages. What I have to 
offer is built largely on their foundations, though of course 
I alone am responsible for what here appears. Some of the 


PREFACE iX 


chapters have already appeared in the Journal of Educational 
Method, and for the use of these my thanks are hereby 
tendered. 

As regards the unusual style of composition, it may be 
said that this was chanced upon in an effort to lighten a 
presentation that otherwise threatened to become too in- 
volved and heavy. Being tried, it has been retained, 
partly for the reason named, partly to encourage more 
independent thinking on the part of those readers who 
come as learners to the book. Other readers may possibly 
feel regret at my choice in the matter. In keeping with 
the conversational style, the organization of the several 
topics is somewhat less systematic than is usual. Stu- 
dents of the book are accordingly urged to use the index 
in connection with any topic studied in order to consider 
at one time all the references to that topic. This use has 
been kept in view as the index has been made. 

For reading the manuscript and making valuable sugges- 
tions, hearty acknowledgments are due to the Rev. Dr. 
Thomas &. Cline of the General Theological Seminary and 
to my colleague, Professor Fannie W. Dunn. For valued 
help in the preparation of the manuscript and in seeing the 
book through the press my best thanks are due to my 
assistant, Miss Marion Y. Ostrander. 


May, 1925. 


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CHAPTER 


I 
II 
Il 
IV 
V 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


Tur WER vs. THE NaRROW PROBLEM oF METHOD 
Wuat Learninc Is anp How Ir Taxes PLACE 
ANOTHER VIEW OF LEARNING 

SimpLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 

Minp-Set AND LEARNING 

CoERCION AND LEARNING 

CoERCION AND LEARNING — Concluded . 

THe Wiper ProsiEM oF METHOD . 

Tue Wiper PropuemM oF Metuop — Concluded . 
INTEREST 

IntEREST — Continued: Tue SELF AND INTEREST 
InreREst — Concluded: Tue INTEREST SPAN . 
Purpvoserut Activiry: THE CoMPLeTE ACT . 
MEANING AND THINKING . 

Ture Complete Act oF THOUGHT 

Wuy Epucation Is CHANGING 

Supsect-MATTER AND THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS . 
PsyCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 

Morau EpucaTiIon 

Mora Epucation — Concluded 


SomE CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 


List OF REFERENCES . 


INDEX 


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FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


CHAPTER I 
Ture WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM OF METHOD 


‘Method,’ ‘problem of method,’ ‘wider problem of meth- 
od,’ — what do you mean? What is it all about? What 
is the ‘wider problem of method’? I have 4 group of 
never heard of that. And is there a ‘narrow’. teachers are 
problem? I didn’t hear the address — I’ve just ne 
come. Was method discussed?’ 

“That’s just the point. The speaker gave us a new dis- 
cussion of the problem of method. He did not, as is sO 
commonly done, talk about the newer ways of 
selecting subject-matter or the scientifically re pata 
devised special methods of teaching spelling, 
handwriting, and the like. He talked instead about the 
part which he said method, broadly interpreted, can and 
should play in education.”’ 

‘Was there any discussion at the close?” 

“Yes, rather an animated discussion. Many asked him 
further about the broader problem of method; but as 
most had never before heard of it they couldn’t make out 
what he meant.”’ 

“Vou object to his position then?”’ 

‘No indeed. I cordially approve so far as I can under- 
stand it. It seems to me almost, if not quite, the most 
important problem in the whole field of education.” 

‘Well, I should like to know more about this most 1m- 


portant problem in education. I have heard more or less 
1 


2 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


of this position but I have never fully understood it. Is 
this what the speaker called ‘the broad problem of method’? 
How did he discuss it?”’ 

‘“‘Let’s take it up and go to the bottom of it. I mean 
let’s go into the ins and outs of this matter of method. 
We can all ask questions, whoever knows or thinks he knows 
can answer, and we can all judge. Let’s do it.” 

‘“‘I for one should be glad to discuss it, for my own ideas 
need clarifying. Where shall we begin?” 

‘Let me begin with my earliest recollection. I can’t 
help so much on the recent developments, but I well re- 
member the first time I ever heard method discussed. I 
was a child of about ten — more years ago than I care to 
tell. I recall to this day what a furor there was in our 
backwoods community when a new teacher said that she 
didn’t teach the alphabet first, she taught the words first, 
and letters and spelling later. She called it the ‘word 
method.’ My head went round. It sounded like building 
a chimney from the top down. My uncle said it was 
foolishness, that it couldn’t possibly work, that the school 
board ought to turn off such a teacher. He certainly was 
surprised, however, to find his little Tommy actually reading 
in less than half the time his older children had taken.”’ 

“Yes, and then we had the sentence method, which 
some claimed was better than the word method; and later 
Varigus we had all kinds of method: the phonic method, 
“methods” the phonetic method, and I don’t know how 
are recalled =~ many others. The Grube method in arithmetic 
came and went; and then we had the Speer method, I 
believe. In those days our institute lecturers had a great 
deal to say about methods. They spoke bravely about the 
‘new methods’ as something great; but I think of late 
years I have noticed a superior sort of smile sometimes as 
‘methods and devices’ are mentioned. Am I right?” 


THE WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM 3 


“You are right, I am sure; but there is still another way 
of looking at method. Last summer at the university I 
took a course in educational psychology. Our Phe berets 
professor said that some day we’d have 4 dogical study 
science of method, or rather that the scientific of methods is 
psychologist would tell us which of two ways Tia ae 
of learning anything is more economical and would give us 
definite rules. He talked a great deal about the laws of 
learning, about set, readiness, exercise, and satisfaction. 
It was awfully hard at first, because I had never heard of 
such things; but after a while I got into it, and now I 
believe he is right. I have been watching myself and how 
I learn, and watching my class, too. Those laws of learning 
certainly work — it’s all a matter of exercise with satisfac- 
tion or annoyance.”’ 

‘‘Well, suppose your psychologist is right as you think. 
I don’t see much difference between method when we talk 
about the ‘word method’ of reading and the 4, og ang 
study of method by your psychologist. It seems new are 
to me that the psychologist is just doing more ©o™Pared 
carefully what we all did when we decided that children 
learned quicker and better by the word method than they 
did by the old alphabetic method. I was at summer school 
myself last year, and in one course it was brought out that 
science and common sense don’t differ much ex- 4 gegnition of 
cept in degree; science is more exact. Whether method is 
you proceed by common sense or by science, slat es 
method seems to me to be a matter of the most economical 
way of teaching or of learning anything.” 

‘The speaker to-day referred to that, but he objected to 
restricting method to this scientific procedure.” 

‘And that’s where he is exactly right. There are more 
reasons than one why I should prefer the ‘word method’ or 
the ‘sentence method’ or any of the modern combinations 


4 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


of these to the old ‘alphabet method.’ It is not simply 
because the child sooner learns to read. That’s good, but 
Awidernotion there’s more to it than that. That old dry 
of method is humdrum alphabet and spelling method made 
suggested the children hate the school and hate the 
teacher. ‘The newer methods of teaching reading somehow 
encourage the children. They seem more alive. If I 
wanted to make the children just docile, like the old serfs, 
you know, and always ‘keep them under’ and ‘break their 
spirit,’ and if I wished. to run the world on the principle 
that ‘children should be seen and not heard,’ then I’d favor 
such spirit-killing methods as the old alphabet method or 
even some of the drill methods now used. But if I be- 
lieved in all that old slavish docility, ’'d be consistent and 
give up democracy and accept Prussianism outright.” 
‘Yes I know; I have heard you on this before. I am not 
going to dispute now whether your way of treating children 
is better or not. I know you’d begin by telling me that 
children are less refractory in school than they used to be; 
I remember what you said before about child suicides in 
Germany caused by the harsh school treatment. But I 
am interested in your idea of method. You mean, if I 
understand you, that the problem of method includes more 
than the best way of learning the lesson immediately at 
hand, that method is more than a matter of the most 
economical way of teaching a child how to read or how to 
learn a long poem. ‘This sounds reasonable, but I don’t 
quite understand. I wish you’d discuss it more fully.” 
‘‘Well, it is just this. There is, as I see it, a narrow way 
of looking at method and a broader way of looking at it. 
The two views L’ might be better to employ different words 
of method are for the two uses, but so far no one has proposed 
contrasted the different terms. The narrow way is all 
right as far as it goes. It asks what is the best way of 


THE WIDER ws. THE NARROW PROBLEM 5 


learning to read, what is the best way of learning a French 
vocabulary, and so on. This is what the older generation 
had in mind when they made so much of ‘methods.’ Only 
they had little or no scientific procedure for testing whether 
one method was better than another. If the difference 
between two rival methods was great, the better would 
probably win out in the end. In this way the old alphabet 
method, as was said before, has gone entirely. Scientific 
psychology and the tests and measurement movement will 
undoubtedly place method, considered narrowly, on an 
increasingly scientific basis. This will prove of great ad- 
vantage to all concerned if only we know how to make it 
all work together for the best education of children. But 
right there comes the rub. I have seen children, after they 
had passed a history examination, slam their books down 
and say, ‘Never again! I hope I may never look into 
another history book as long as I live!’ Now it seems to 
me that our pupils ought to learn not only what is in the 
history course, but also to love history. I have seen older 
children study civics and government and come out not 
caring a rap whether their city was well governed or not. 
There is something to learn besides what is written in the 
books, and a child may learn the one without learning the 
other. Then I know too that some of the pupils who make 
the highest marks — at any rate under some teachers — are 
afraid to call their souls their own. They can’t think 
independently; they don’t know how. They are afraid to 
trust their own judgment — they hardly have any judg- 
ment. If it is in the book, or if the teacher says it, then 
it’s true and that ends it. But surely that isn’t the kind of 
citizens we need in a democratic country.” —_ 4, it method 
‘“Do you mean that whether pupils come to or subject- 

like history or to wish good government or be ™#tter? 

able to think independently is a matter of method? I¢ 


6 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


seems to me that each of these is something to learn just 
as truly as is the subject-matter of history or government. 
How about it?” 

“Tt is something to learn. You are exactly right. Learn- 
ing the subject-matter of history is one thing. Learning 
to love history is another thing, related but different. 
Learning how to reach independent but dependable judg- 
ments in history is still another thing. Each learning is 
valuable and needs consideration. We should not trust to 
luck in the last two any more than in the first.” 

“But you have not answered my question. You admit 
that all these things are something to learn, but you say 
nothing of the method. A few minutes ago you were 
making big claims about method; you said you were widen- 
ing the reach of method. In the end it seems that every- 
thing is something to learn, everything merely some kind 
of subject-matter — different kinds of subject-matter to be 
sure, but all subject-matter. Why not agree with those - 
who say that after all curriculum is the one question? 
For curriculum seems to me to be nothing but a selection 
of desirable subject-matter, of desirable things to be learned. 
How do you answer that?” 

‘In one way it is all a question of things to be learned. 
But the problem of method comes in. It won’t be kept 
A second def. OUt- It cannot be kept out. To each thing to 
nition of be learned belongs its own way of being learned. 
ably To learn anything we must somehow practice 
that thing. To learn how to form judgments we must 
practice forming judgments — under conditions that tell 
success from failure and give satisfaction to success and 
annoyance to failure. To learn to think independently we 
must practice thinking independently. Now the problem of 
method is exactly the problem of providing such conditions 
for learning as give the right kind of practice for learning — 


THE WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM a 


a practice that will tell success from failure and attach 
satisfaction to success and annoyance to failure. To each 
thing you call ‘subject-matter’ (the term is a slippery one) 
belongs its own style of method. Self-respect is a thing 
needful to be learned — you wish it called ‘subject-matter.’ 
At any rate, to the learning of self-respect belongs its own 
style of method, namely discriminative practice in exercising 
self-respect. Now, isn’t it true: to each learning, its own 
method? Do we see how method attaches to learning 
history, to learning to love history, to learning to think 
trustworthily in history, to acquiring self-respect in ae 
matters?” 

“Yes, I must admit it. I had not before seen how inti- 

mately subject-matter and method are related to each 
other. They seem strict correlations of each 4, + not one 
other. To each thing to be learned belongs its typeofmethod, 
own appropriate method. Perhaps I’ll wish to “ter a? 
- ask you more about that later. But I have now another 
question. You spoke, earlier, of a wider sense of method 
and a narrower sense of method. I don’t yet see any two 
senses of method. You have pointed out perhaps unusual 
fields in which to seek and find method, but all the instances 
you have given — once they are found — belong to the 
same kind. All reduce themselves to one formula: the 
most economical way of learning the thing at hand. There 
may be more things at hand, more things to be learned at 
one time and together than I had thought; but the same 
notion of method — your narrower sense of method — fits 
them all. What then becomes of your broader sense of 
method? I believe you have forgotten it or rather have 
been confused in your thinking.” 

““Don’t be too hasty. Perhaps we shall yet locate the 
broader kind of method. You spoke a moment ago of 
several things at hand to be learned, many things to be 


8 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


learned at one and the same time. Can a child learn 
several things at a time or must he learn in fact but one 
at a time?” 

‘“‘T don’t understand. I have always heard that we can 
do only one thing at a time, or at any rate can pay atten- 
tion to only one thing. How then can we learn more than 
one thing at a time?” 

“Tl tell you how several things may be learned at one 
time. Suppose a shy little girl enters the kindergarten. 
Many learn- he shrinks at first from the other children, she 
ings goonat is unwilling to engage in any of their activities, 
a a but at length she is coaxed into trying the 
‘slider.’ (You know our kindergarten has in it a children’s 
toboggan slide.) This little girl learns how to mount the 
stairs, how to get herself ready, how to let go and slide 
down. She forgets her shyness and enjoys sliding tre- 
mendously. The next day she comes to school a different 
child. Why different? I'll tell you why. She has learned - 
some things. What has she learned? Wherein is she 
different? She already has decided that she likes the 
kindergarten assistant who helped her yesterday. She likes 
Mary and Tommy who helped her on the slide. She 
likes the slide. She knows how to use it, how to take her 
turn. She is less shy. She told her mother, when she 
reached home that night, that she liked the kindergarten. 
Kach of these things represents a something learned. Each 
represents an exercise with satisfaction. Did she learn 
these several things, one at a time, in a set order? Clearly 
not. Nor did she learn them all exactly simultaneously 
or in one moment. But they are inextricably interwoven. 
Learning each was in some measure bound up with learning 
the others. It would have been impossible for her to 
practice with the slide without at the same time acquiring 
some sort of attitude toward the other children using it, 


THE WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM 9 


some sort of attitude toward the kindergarten assistant 
who supervised, some sort of attitude toward herself in the 
total situation, some sort of attitude toward the kinder- 
garten as a whole. And note how large a part method 
played. Suppose the assistant were an impossible sort of 
kindergartner who had greeted the shy stranger sternly 
and had gruffly ordered her at once to mount the slider 
stairs. Would the child’s learning have been the same 
in any way? On the contrary, wouldn’t it all have been 
different ?”’ 

“Of course it would have been different. Anyone can 
see that. The teacher’s way of handling the situation 
must have its effect.” 

“Then we have two factors that together make up the 
wider problem of method. First is the fact that while the 
child is responding in significant fashion for any length of 
time to any situation, he responds not singly but variously, 
variously to the many different parts and aspects of the 
situation. What he learns by these varied responses I am 
calling ‘simultaneous learnings.’ The second is the fact 
that the teacher’s way of handling any pupil-learning situa- 
tion affects for good or ill the aggregate of these simul- 
taneous learnings. They are all tied together; they must be 
considered together. These two facts or factors present for 
us the wider problem of method: How shall the teacher 
so act as to make finest and best this aggregate of ‘simul- 
taneous learnings’?”’ 

“Vou seem to imply that what you call ‘simultaneous 
learnings’ are inevitable. Is that true? I can see that it’s 
true in child life and with such childlike experiences as 
that with the ‘slider,’ but how is it with our school sub- 
jects — with grammar, for instance? Does a boy learning 
a grammar lesson inevitably have these simultaneous learn- 
ings?” 


10 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Indeed, yes. Simultaneous learnings are inevitable. 
In the half hour when a boy is facing his grammar lesson, 
An illustration € is not only learning or failing to learn that 
from specific lesson, but he is also fixing or unfixing 
tara! an attitude toward the subject of grammar, 
another attitude toward his teacher, another toward schools, 
another toward himself with reference to grammar and 
school and his ability and disposition generally. He may 
be getting interesting suggestions for further study into 
language when a favorable moment shall present itself, or 
he may be hardening his heart on the whole matter. He 
may be saying, ‘It’s no use. I can’t learn anything.’ 
He may be deciding that school and parents and the whole 
tribe of governors are unfeeling tyrants, that wrong to 
them is right to him, that right to him is success in ‘getting 
by’ with his unbridled impulses. These are some of the 
heads under which this boy has been learning during his 
half hour of grammar study. Does this make it clearer?” 

“That point is clear —the simultaneous learnings are 
there; but I don’t see where method comes in. We were 
discussing the ‘wider’ problem of method. Have you 
forgotten that?”’ 

‘‘Method was there all the time, whether I mentioned it 
or not. Does the teacher have any part in influencing 
The wtde: which learning under all these different heads 
sense of a boy will make? Is it not true that what 
ee the boy thinks or does not think, what he feels 
or does not feel, what, in short, he brings with him out of 
the total situation depends in large measure upon the teacher, 
upon his way of handling the boys in and about the school? 
The narrow sense of method singles out for consideration 
one specific thing to be learned and for the time being pays 
exclusive attention to that as if it were the only thing 
going on at that time. The wider sense of method knows 


THE WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM 11 


that in actual life one thing never goes on by itself. This 
wider method demands that we consider the actual facts, 
the real world. The narrow sense of method faces always 
an abstraction, an unreality —a part of a total situation, 
a part that can no more exist by itself than could a man’s 
head continue to live apart from his body. We have to 
make such abstractions for the sake of economy in studying; 
but we should know what we are doing —we must never 
make the mistake of supposing the abstracted element is 
real life. The problem of method in the wider sense is thus 
very general: How shall we treat children, since whether 
we like it or no they are going to learn well or ill not only 
the thing we choose to set them at, but also at the same 
time a great many other things perhaps of far greater 
importance?’”’ : 

“That is just what the speaker said to-day. Method in 
the wide sense must be studied. Too much is involved. 
Without this method the study of education walks on one 
leg instead of two. Curriculum alone does not suffice.” 

“But this problem of method puts a great responsibility 
upon the teacher. I am almost sorry I see it. Why, I can- 
not teach ‘Stocks and Bonds’ next week without wonder- 
ing whether I am doing more harm than good! I cannot 
shut my eyes any longer to what you call the wider problem 
of method. But what shall we do about it? How can we 
study it, and how is it related to the narrower problem of 
method?” 

“We do thus have these two problems of method, one 
narrow, the other wide: one has to do with learning the 
details, as such, that go to make up education; ME eG 
the other concerns education as a whole, edu- wider sense is 
cation considered as the correlative of the the problem 
whole of life. We can and must study both. riaranke 
The psychologist and experimental educator will help most 


12 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


on the first problem, the problem of method in its narrow 
sense. The second problem is in a way the problem of life 
itself. The answer to the second problem, the wider prob- 
lem of method, will depend on the answer we give to the 
problem of life. That is why the old Prussian type of 
method doesn’t suit us in America. Military Prussia wanted 
some of her children to fill this station in life ; Others, that; 
but all to be docile and obedient. She wanted some to be 
tradesmen and shopworkers, others of the upper classes to 
be officers in the army and government officials, but all to 
accept the rule of the Kaiser without question. So her 
school officials hunted out a way of treating children that 
made them able each to do his own work, but did not make 
them independent in judgment. I once heard Dean Russell 
of Teachers College discuss this. He said the method was 
the same for all the Prussian children whether they went, 
as the common people, to the V olksschule or whether they 
went, as the upper classes, to the Gymnasium. The 
curriculums of the two schools were different, to fit 
each group for its place in the scheme; but the method 
was the same, to mold them all into the Prussian type 
of character.”’ 

“That’s exceedingly interesting and very important for 
us. I begin to wonder if we don’t have some Prussians 
in this country, I mean people who are anxious to fit our 
immigrants into some sort of lower working class. I have 
heard certain persons talking a great deal about ‘instine- 
tive obedience,’ as if they wanted some of our people to 
grow up especially strong in obedience while others perhaps 
should grow up especially strong in commanding those 
more obedient ones. It doesn’t sound like democracy to 
me.”’ 

“Yes, it is a very important problem, and it is equally 
important that it should be recognized. If we are going to 


THE WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM 13 


make a success of our democratic experiment begun 
(formally) about 1776, we must have a type of education 
that fits democracy. A democratic society 
A democratic 
should have a democratic school system, and society should 
in this system a democratic method will play bave 2 demo 
i “ cratic method 
a most important part. 

“T have just come in and I don’t know about the two 
problems of method that I am told you have been dis- 
cussing. If the others don’t mind, I wish you nother 
would summarize what you have pee saying, teacher joins 
so that I may take part with you.” Be OUe 


“With pleasure. Our first_conclusion was that Just as, 
we need to study the curriculum to find out what to teach, ~ 


so we : need to study method to find out how to teach. When 
we came more closely to the question of method we found 
there were two problems of method: one, long recognized, 
the problem of how best to learn — and consequently how 
best to teach — any one thing, as spelling; the other, less 
often consciously studied, the problem of how to treat the 
learning child, seeing that he is willy-nilly learning not 
one but many things all at once, and that we teachers are 
in great measure responsible for the aggregate of what he 
learns. The first of these problems we called the narrow 
view of method; the second, the wider view of method.” 

bel: eae to see what you mean. But why do you say 

‘narrow’ and ‘wider’? Do you mean to disparage the one 

and exalt the other?” 

‘By no means. The one is narrow because it considers 
only one thing at a time, the other is broader because it 
takes into account the many learnings all going on at once. 
But there is no wish or willingness to disparage the narrow 
view. Some of us think the psychology of learning which 
undertakes to answer the first problem is the most notable 
single contribution that psychology has thus far to offer.” 


14 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Won't you say a further word about the wider view of 
method? I don’t get exactly what you mean. The idea 
is so new that I don’t fully grasp it.” 

‘Well, if the others don’t mind hearing it again, Til 
gladly explain how we saw it. As it seemed to us, any 


child during an educative experience learns not 
The wider 


wie or merely the one thing he is supposed to be en- 
method is gaged in, say a grammar lesson, but is also at 
summarized 


the same time learning well or ill a multitude 
of other things. Some of them may be: how he shall 
study, whether with diligence or the reverse; how he shall 
regard grammar, whether as an interesting study or no; 
how he shall feel toward his teacher, whether as friend and 
helper or as a mere taskmaster; how he shall regard him- 
self, whether as capable or not; whether or not he. shall 
believe that it pays to try (in such matters as grammar) ; 
whether to form opinions for himself and to weigh argu- 
ments in connection; how he shall regard government, 
of all kinds, whether as alien to him and opposed to 
his best interests, a mere matter of opposed superior 
force, or as just and right, inherently demanded, and 
friendly to his true and proper interests. This by no 
means exhausts the list, but it will give you some idea of 
what we mean by ‘simultaneous learnings,’ some idea of 
what we had in mind in saying that many things are being 
learned at once. You will also see how important some of 
these attendant learnings are, and I believe you will agree 
with us that whether they are well learned depends in 
great measure on how the teacher treats the children.” 
‘Please don’t think me stupid. I have been here from 
the first, but I still don’t see the difference. I don’t see 
the two problems. I see that grammar is one thing and that 
a liking for grammar is another, and I can well believe 
that each has to be learned in its own way; but I should 


THE WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM 15 


say that each presents essentially the same problems of 
method, how to use the laws of learning so as to get that 
thing best learned. Where are the two different problems?” 

‘Perhaps an illustration will help. Imagine an athletic 
coach so anxious for his team to win that he preaches 
‘Anything to win.’ What do you think of the pe atntetic 
probable effect on the morals of his boys?” coach: “Any- 

“T fear they’ll do ‘anything to win.’ I should epee ney 
expect a bad moral effect. But I don’t see that this illus- 
tration is any clearer than the other. We have here two 
things to be learned, the game and the morals involved. 
But doesn’t each follow the same laws of learning? I see 
two instances of one problem, both instances of what you 
called the narrow problem of method. I do not see two 
problems. I see only one. I see no ‘broad problem.’ ” 

‘““You stopped me too soon. I agree with most of what 
you say. The problem of how best to learn the game is 
one instance of the ‘narrow problem.’ The problem of 
how best to build morals through the game is, as you say, 
but a second instance of the same ‘narrow problem.’ But 
I maintain there is yet a second problem — one you have 
not named.” 

‘““T don’t see it.”’ 

‘Let me then ask a further question or two. Suppose 
you are coaching a team and know the best way to teach 
the game as a mere game, and you also know ie pee 
how best to teach morals through games; will of teaching 
you teach the two separately or together?” two things 

“T don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it. aeeres 
I suppose I should teach them separately on the principle 
of ‘divide and conquer.’ What do you say?”’ 

“Suppose the two things were so tied together that you 
couldn’t separate them but had to teach both at the same 
time, what then?”’ 


16 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“That’s not so easy to say. I can see how attention to 
either one might distract attention at a critical time from 
the other, and that this might interfere with doing either 
well. I believe I should take them separately.”’ 

‘Suppose we had not simply two things to consider but 
many. What then?” 

‘The more reason for separating them and taking each 
in turn.” 

‘But suppose for some sufficient reason you had to teach 
all together?” 

‘Then I should have the problem on my hands of how 
to manage all, and I don’t now see how I could do it. I 
suppose I should have to compromise somehow, slighting 
some things and stressing others.” 

“‘And that problem would be another and a different 
problem from the problem of how to teach each alone 
provided you could separate them all out from each 
other?”’ 

‘““Indeed, yes. I begin now to see.” 

“‘T am glad you do, but there is yet more.” 

“More yet?” 

‘“Yes. Suppose you faced a group of children and knew 
that they were certainly learning many things simulta- 
The problem eously, but you didn’t know just what these 
of what is many things were. What then would you do?” 
beinglearned =“ T suppose my first step would be to find out 
what were the different things they were learning.”’ 

‘“‘And after you had found out, you would still have to 
ask how to manage the situation so that the total outcome 
would be best?” 

«Vag? 

‘‘ And these two problems would still be different from the 
problem of teaching each thing separately, would they not?”’ 

‘Yes, I see that.” 


THE WIDER vs. THE NARROW PROBLEM 17 


‘And finally is it not true that any class is inevitably 
learning many things simultaneously? “ 

“Yes, I must admit it. We have sufficiently discussed 
that before.”’ 

“And we cannot, even if we would, separate them so 
that only one is learned at once?”’ 

“Yes that too is true.” 

“Then every time I as teacher face a class I must con- 
sider (a) what things they are simultaneously learning, 
and (b) how I can manage so that this aggregate as a whole 
may be the best?”’ 

“T see no way out of it.” 

‘And these together constitute a different problem from 
the problem of how to teach each if I could, by a miracle, 
have it all by itself?”’ 

“Yes I now see your two problems: one is a problem 
of seeing and adjusting many things together, the other is 
a problem of how I would manage each by yo distinct 
itself if I could so isolate it. I see now.” problems of 

“How many things are being learned at Sa cg 
once? Do you think of them as few, many, or very many?” 

“Possibly in strictness there 1s no limit to the number. 
Practically the most significant ones are seldom more than 
a dozen, I reckon. What do you say?” 

“T agree with you.” 

‘Am I right in thinking of the narrow problem as pri- 
marily psychological?’”’ 

“Ves that’s how I see it.” 

‘And the broad problem is rather moral and ethical, 
or perhaps better still philosophical?” 

“Yes I think so. When we face life and Snape 
have several demands simultaneously on us the other is 
and they get somewhat in each other’s way so ser eh arian 
that some must be made to yield in a measure to others, 


18 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


then we have a moral or philosophical problem. It is a 
conflict of values, you see, and that’s always philosophical.” 

‘And each learning situation inevitably presents the 
broad problem of method?’ 

“Yes, and we must face it. Duty demands it. In so 
far as we can help matters, we are morally responsible for 
what happens.” | 

“And, besides this, each learning situation may well pre- 
sent to us one or more fruitful problems of method nar- 
rowly considered?” ; 

‘Quite true. The alert teacher will always see them.” 

“Then, if I understand it, the problem of method properly 
considered looks to psychology to tell us how to make 
learning go well in each of all its several details?” 

“Yes, but a full consideration of method makes us ask 
at each time and all the time what kind of character is 
being built through all the learnings simultaneously going 
on, and how we can with it all help a finer character to 
grow.” 

“Then if we are to do our full duty as teachers we should 
make a serious study of method in both these aspects.” 

“Yes, and for us psychology is probably the next step.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING ! 


Kinpatrick — “Method and Curriculum,” Journal of Educational 
Method, 1:312-318, 367-374 (April and May, 1922). 
Kinpatrick — “Dangers and Difficulties of the Project Method,”’ 
Teachers College Record, 22:311-314 (September, 1921). 
Kitpatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 
480. (This item repeats part of the preceding reference.) 
Dewry — Interest and Effort in Education, pp. 8-11. 


1Tt is advised that the student use the references in the order given. 


CHAPTER. IL 
Wuat LEARNING Is AND How It Takers PLACE 


‘‘T wish I understood the ‘laws of learning.’ Wherever 
I go, some one refers to them. They sound very imposing 
— and mysterious — but do they really amount 4 pother 
to anything? How did the world manage to get meeting of 
on so long without them?”’ Mca 

‘Well, you may be interested in the laws of learning, 
but I’m not. I don’t see the use of teachers’ worrying their 
heads about psychology. Teaching has to do yo teachers 
with children, real live children; but psychology need psy- 
is as dead as other things that live only in “Sy? 
books. Teaching is hard enough and dry enough without 
having to learn psychology besides. If I went to summer 
school, which I don’t intend to do, I’d study photography 
or something else interesting, but you’d never catch me in 
a class in educational psychology. Besides, when I go off 
in the summer I don’t want to be always reminded of my 
work, September to June is enough for me.” 

“Yes: we all know how you feel on such matters; but I 
believe one reason why you find teaching dry and hard is 
exactly because you don’t study it. At sum- 
mer school last year I found out so many new acinenel a 
things about children and how they learn, and makes teach- 
heard so much of the plans and experiments of Heaney 3 
the other students, that I could hardly wait for 
school to begin again, I was so eager to see those things in 
my pupils and to try some experiments of my own. You 


will perhaps say that I have always liked teaching. So I 
19 


20 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


have, in a way, but teaching the same way year in and 
year out was getting to be pretty monotonous. Now it’s a 
different thing. I have more interesting things to watch 
than you can imagine. But I must admit that I don’t 
seem to see all my psychology as clearly now as when we 
were discussing it in the class. More difficulties have arisen 
than I had ever dreamed of. For one thing the psychology 
seems more complicated, not only when I watch my pu- 
pils in relation to it, but also when I try to straighten it 
all out in my mind. There’s nothing Id like better than 
to talk it over, but I warn you I’ll raise many questions : 
for I want to know.” 

“If psychology or anything else will make teaching my 
brats anything but humdrum, I’ll say, ‘Yes, let’s study it.’ 
Dose cer I am willing to listen awhile and see how your 
chology fit all discussion starts off, but I tell you beforehand 
artetee St I’m skeptical of it all. You don’t know my pu- 
pils. Psychology may help your nice well-dressed children 
who come from good homes, but it takes something stronger 
for mine. My first step with each new class is to put the 
fear of God into their souls. After that I can sometimes 
do something with them. Perhaps I might use even psy- 
chology then, if I knew enough about it.” 

‘Where shall we begin? Some one suggested the laws of 
learning.”’ 

“That’s my first question: Why do you say ‘law’? I 
know you don’t mean that we have to obey Thorndike or 
whoever first made those laws; so why say ‘law’?”’ 

“A law of learning is like any law of nature. Newton 
didn’t make the law of gravitation; he discovered it. As I 
The meaning Understand it, a law of nature is nothing but 
of the term a statement of an observed regularity. Galileo 
Nobid discovered certain laws of falling bodies, but 
bodies fell afterwards just exactly as they had fallen before. 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 21 


They didn’t pay any attention to Galileo. He only told 
what they do, regularly do, always do, so far as he could 
tell. The laws are merely exact statements of how bodies 
fall.” 

‘Well, if that’s all, I don’t see the use of laws. Why 
bother with them?”’ 

‘The use is this: If we know what to expect of falling 
bodies, we then know how to act where falling bodies are 
concerned.” 

‘“That’s nothing but common sense, isn’t it? Where does 
the science come in?”’ 

‘“‘Seience is itself nothing but common sense, common 
sense more careful of its steps. Science is based on experi- 
ence just as common sense is, but it has more exact ways 
of measuring and of telling. In particular it tries to include 
many experiences under one statement. A law of nature 
is merely a very inclusive, very careful, and very reliable 
statement of what to expect.” 

“That sounds reasonable, but apply it to our topic. 
What is a law of learning?” 

‘‘A law of learning would be nothing but a very carefully 
made and very inclusive statement of how learning takes 
place.” 

“Give us one of the laws of learning. I’d like to know 
how learning takes place. Perhaps I’d know better how to 
make my pupils learn.” 

“Vl give you the Law of Readiness: When a bond is 
ready to act, to act gives satisfaction and not to act —’ 

‘“‘Now there you go with your outlandish jargon. Why 
don’t you use everyday English. Bond! What is a 
bond?” 

‘That is the trouble about trying to be exact. As a 
matter of fact, I fear I have over-simplified it now. I 
think, though, we’ll have to begin further back. We'll 


pe FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


have to get some preliminary terms or give up the effort 
to use understandingly the laws of learning.” 

“Go on. Only don’t give us too many.” 

“Let’s begin with this symbol, S—R, and build up 
from there. 5S stands for stimulus, or perhaps, more ex- 
actly, for situation acting as stimulus; and R 
stands for response. Any act of conduct is a 
response (R) to some sort of situation (S$). I 
hear a child crying (S); I stop and listen (R). I meet a friend 
on the street (S); I say ‘good morning’ (R). My friend 
sees me and hears me speak (S); he responds in like fashion 
(R). He notices that I stop walking (S); he stops (R). I 
see that he is within close hearing distance and attentive 
(S); I speak commending his address of last evening (R). 
He hears me speak (S); the meanings of my words arise 
in his mind (R). He understands my meaning (8); his 
face flushes and he feels gratification (R).”’ 

““You haven’t said a word about bond or connection. 
Please explain that. I told you I’d raise many questions.” 

‘‘Notice the next to the last instance given: ‘He hears 
me speak (8); the meanings of my words arise in his mind 
(R).’ If he had not in the past learned the 
meanings of these words, my voice would have 
struck in vain upon his ears. The meanings 
could arise in his mind only because in the past he had learned 
to associate thenceforth these meanings with these sounds. 
That is, his past experience had built up somewhere in 
him — in his nervous system, in fact — such connections or 
bonds that when a particular sound is heard (e.g., my 
spoken words ‘magnificent address’), its appropriate mean- 
ing arises as a thought in his mind. Each such language 
connection or bond has to be learned — that is, built up — 
by and in experience.”’ 

‘But not all bonds are built up or learned, are they?” 


The symbol 
S—R 


The term 
“bond” 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 23 


‘No, that is what I was about to say. My friend flushed 
with pleasure (R), when I commended his address (S8). 
His being pleased at commendation and his qnate ys. 
flushing in connection were not learned; these acquired 
responses are innately joined. Each one of us Soe 
is born with many such responses already joined by strong 
bonds to their appropriate situations.” 

‘‘What is the arrow in S— R? Is that the bond con- 
necting S and R?”’ 

“Yes. It is usually better to think of the situation (8S) 
as being sized up or received by one nerve structure (or 
mechanism), the response (R) as made by a second, and 
the arrow as a third nerve structure that carries the stimula- 
tion from the receiving structure (or mechanism) (8) to the 
responding structure (or mechanism) (R). There are some 
difficulties in so simple a statement, but we shall not go far 
wrong so to take it.’ 

“Do you mean that this S— R holds true of everything 
we do? Everything?”’ 

“That is exactly what I mean. All conduct of whatever 
kind is so described. Of course some situations are very 
simple, while others are very complex. And Ali conduct 
similarly with responses, some are simple, Sea 
others exceedingly complex. The bonds also terms of 
vary. Some are so simple, definite, and ‘strong’ 5 ® 
that as soon as the stimulus comes the response follows with 
almost mechanical promptness and certainty. You know 
how it is if one is struck sharply just below the knee cap, 
the knee flexes in spite of anything we can do to prevent it. 
Other connections or bonds are so weak, so little formed, 
that the least interference will prevent the response. If I 
ask a third grade pupil what is 2 x 2, he will say ‘4’ at once. 
If I ask 7x6, he may tell me ‘42,’ but he is likely not to 
feel very sure of it. If I ask 8x 13, he is almost sure not 


24 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


to know. Now it isn’t a question of knowing 42 as a 
number in and of itself, it is precisely a question of having 
or not having built a bond that joins 42 to 7x6, so that 
the thought of 7 x 6 (S) is followed by 42 (R). The arith- 
metic connections or bonds have to be built in order to be 
available for use. I wonder if the word ‘learn’ doesn’t 
begin to take on a more definite meaning?”’ 

““T see that S—R does join up with arithmetic and 
language; but does it fit all learning — geography, for ex- 
ample, or composition?”’ 

‘Most certainly. If one should ask about the capital of 
North Dakota, some will answer at once; others will hesi- 
tate, making perhaps several guesses; some won’t know at 
all. The presence or absence of the bond and its strength, 
if present, tells the tale. So with composition work. One 
child will leave a straight margin at the left of the page, 
another will write as if there were no such thing. The differ- 
ence is the presence or absence of the appropriate bond. 
One child will join with and’s many short sentences. An- 
other will consciously avoid it. So with morals: One boy 
in a tight place (S) will le out of it (R). Another in the 
same tight place (S) will tell the exact truth unflinchingly 
(R). Everywhere it is a question of what bonds have or 
have not been built.” 

““Now tell us about readiness and satisfaction and annoy- 
ance. ‘They are fairly clear to me, but there are still some 
difficulties.”’ 

‘And others of us know nothing about them as yet.” 

“Readiness is easier to see than to tell. I like to think 
of it as connected with the degree of stimulation needed at 
any given time to bring about a given response, 
the greater the readiness, the less stimulation 
is needed. Imagine a small boy and a heartless 
experimenter. One hot day the boy begs for ice cream, 


Readiness 
discussed 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 25 


boasting recklessly that he can eat six helpings. The experi- 
menter dares him to do it, saying that he will furnish the 
ice cream. The contest is on. Situation: a plate of ice 
cream before a small boy on a hot day. Response: the boy 
falls with alacrity upon the cream. Readiness is high. 
The second helping finds, if possible, even greater readiness. 
But toward the end of the third plate readiness sharply 
declines. The fourth sees readiness reduced to the zero 
point and even below. Readiness is thus a condition of the 
neurone measuring the degree of its craving for activity.” 

‘That is clear so far, but are there not other causes of 
readiness or unreadiness?”’ | 

‘“‘Indeed, yes. Fatigue, due to extended exercise, is a 
common cause of unreadiness. (The case above was dif- 
ferent. It was not so much exercise of jaw or ihe 

: Conditions 
palate nerves as it was fullness of stomach that making for 
reduced below zero the readiness for ice cream.) Tea@diness or 

: ; ; unreadiness 
Preoccupation with something else of an op- 
posing kind may also bring unreadiness, as when fear or 
sorrow cause unreadiness for mirth. A most important 
source of readiness is set, one’s mental attitude at the time.” 

“I wish you would tell us about set. I have heard so 
much about set and purpose that I just must straighten 
them out. What is the connection between set and pur- 
pose? But first, what is the difference between set and 
readiness? ‘They seem much alike to me.” 

‘‘They are much alike and sometimes confused, but I 
believe we can make a clear distinction between the two. 
Set is broader than readiness. Readiness is , 

‘ ‘Set” and 
best thought of as belonging to one response “readiness” 
bond (possibly a compound response bond), discriminated 
while set refers to the mind acting more or less screen te 
as a whole (or for our purposes, set more precisely belongs 
to an aggregate of bonds that for the time being have 


26 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


practical charge of the person or organism).! The term 
‘mind-set-to-an-end’ brings out perhaps more clearly what I 
mean. ‘The emphasis here is on one controlling end which 
seems to possess the mind. The organism is bent or set 
upon attaining this end (typically an external end). The 
practical relations between set and readiness are here most 
interesting. A boy gifted in baseball is anxious that his 
team shall win in the match next Saturday. We may say 
that he is ‘set’ on winning the match. This set reaches 
out to many allied and auxiliary response bonds and makes 
them ready for the part they may possibly play in attaining 
the end in view. The boy’s ear will be ‘wide open’ to hear 
any useful ‘dope’ on the game. His eye will be ‘peeled’ 
to see the curves of the opposing pitcher. This effect is 
general, the mind-set-to-an-end in fact makes more ready 
all one’s inner resources (response bonds) that by previous 
inner connection seem pertinent to the activity at hand. 
Nor is this all. Simultaneously with passing on readiness 
to pertinent bonds, this set also makes unready all those 
response bonds whose action might interfere with attaining 
the end in view. The same thing that made our baseball 
boy ready for the necessary practice during the preceding 
week made him correspondingly unready for anything that 
might interfere with that practice. Every teacher knows 
that little study is given to books just in advance of any en- 
grossing contest. Some college teachers say no serious 
study is possible till after the Thanksgiving games.’’ 

“You have struck something live now. But you seem 
almost to make a thinking being out of mind-set. It enter- 
tains ends. It seems to know what will help and what will 
hinder action to these ends. I don’t see what becomes of 
the person — his self, I mean.”’ 


1 There is still a slightly different sense in which the mind-set makes one 
see everything as ‘‘roseate”’ or makes one ‘‘blue.”’ 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 27 


“Your inquiry raises a real difficulty, but it is a difficulty 
rather of language than of fact, I believe. Imagine a little 
girl walking by a toy shop. Her shoes have 
been hurting her feet. All at once her eyes fall ane cues 

; wie e mind-set | 
on a fairy vision of a doll. Her ‘heart’ (ag- R 
gregate of S—R bonds capable of forming a mind-set) 
responds at once. She wants the doll. A set for possessing 
the doll is in possession of the girl. Shoes are forgotten, 
by-standers vanish. She and the doll for one brief mo- 
ment make up the whole world, but in another moment the 
mother is included: ‘O Mother! I want her so much. 
Please get her for me.’ Then that world enlarges to include 
in succession shopkeeper, price, money, possible sources of 
money, Father, Uncle George. 

‘‘A formal analysis will perhaps make clear the life his- 
tory and action of this psychological set: (a) there must be 
available for stimulation certain end-setting-up S — R bonds 
(here the doll-appropriating response and, likely enough, 
bonds for doll-carriages, ice cream, etc., as well); (6) some- 
thing (here the chance sight of the doll) stimulates one such 
available S — R bond (more strictly an aggregate of bonds); 
(c) a response follows, wherein an end is set up (here the 
strong wish for the doll); (d) from this set there spreads 
readiness through previously made connections to allied 
and auxiliary S > R bonds (here become ‘ready’ the bonds 
for asking Father or Uncle George); (e) a similar and 
simultaneous spread of unreadiness to such other 5-R 
response bonds as might thwart or unnecessarily postpone 
the doll-appropriating activities (the pains from the shoes 
are forgotten); (f) then follows the auxiliary action of the 
most ready of the allied S— R bonds (‘O Mother, please 
get her for me’). Thus instead of using the mysteries of 
self and thinking to explain what has here gone on, we 
must, I think, ultimately explain from the inside and along 


28 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


these lines what a self is and how thinking proceeds. But 
that’s another story.”’ 

‘Well, we have to admit that psychology is not as dead 
or dry as I said. But how are you going to use all this? 
What bearing has it on your laws of learning that you began 
to talk about?”’ 

‘Possibly when we take them up our digression will be 
justified. Suppose we begin now? Thorndike gives three 


The three major laws, those of Readiness, of Use and 
Laws of Disuse (or Exercise), and of Satisfaction and 
ene Annoyance (or Effect). The Law of Readiness 


follows well what we have been discussing: When a bond 
is ready to act, to act gives satisfaction and not to 
act gwes annoyance. When a bond is not ready 
to act, to be forced to act gives annoyance. Think 
what we have been saying about readiness, and see if this 
law does not sound reasonable.”’ 

‘Why, yes indeed. That boy and the ice cream — as 
long as the ice-cream-eating bonds were ready to act, he 
got satisfaction from his eating; and the less ready he 
became, the less satisfaction he got from his eating. I 
suppose if he had been compelled to eat all six plates, it 
would have proved very annoying. Yes, this law is clear, 
but I have been wondering if it isn’t a kind of definition of 
what is meant by satisfaction and annoyance. What do 
you say?” 

“The question is a very interesting one. I am inclined 
to agree with you. But probably we had better not go into 
that discussion just now. Fix attention on readiness as a 
state of the neurone (or nerve structure) which disposes it 
to action; then this law throws its light on the meaning of 
satisfaction and annoyance. Probably our general experi- 
ence has something else to add in any particular case. I 
am inclined to say that this law partly defines and partly 


The Law of 
Readiness 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 29 


joins things of which we have otherwise independent 
knowledge. Let us now go to the Law of Satisfaction and 
Annoyance.” ) 

“You skipped the Law of Use and Disuse. Do you 
wish to keep the order you first gave?”’ 

“So we did skip it, and I believe it is best to take the 
other first. Before taking it up, consider what we are 
about. Some S—R bonds we bring into the world with 
us; others — the great majority — we acquire after we get 
here. Of the innate bonds some fit our civilization and need 
to be maintained; others don’t fit so well, and 
need to be changed or killed off. Acquiring 
new bonds or changing old ones is what we 
mean by learning. Perhaps our commonest work is strength- 
ening or weakening bonds.” 

“What do you mean by strengthening a bond? When is 
a bond strong and when weak?”’ 

‘(We strengthen a bond when we change the connection 
between any § and its R so that the response (R) will more 
likely follow the stimulation (S) or will follow 
more promptly or more definitely. Weakening 
is merely doing the contrary; though often 
people speak of weakening a bond when they really mean 
strengthening a substitute bond. Of course, pedagogically, 
this is usually the best way of weakening an undesirable 
bond.” 

‘‘Can all bonds be changed? Or are there some beyond 
our influence?” 

‘‘There are some bonds practically beyond the power of 
education to modify. These we call reflexes. They belong 
especially to certain more mechanical actions of the body. 
Education too has limits fixed for it by nature. Of course 
then when we are speaking of learning we restrict ourselves 
to modifiable bonds.” 


Learning 
defined 


Strengthen- 
ing bonds 


30 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘We are ready now to state the Law of Satisfaction and 

Annoyance (or Law of Effect): A modifiable bond is strength- 
ened or weakened according as satisfaction or 

The Law of : : 
Satisfaction annoyance attends rts exercise.”’ 
and Annoy- ‘When we studied this last summer our in- 
Tarte structor led us to repeat many times: ‘Satisfac- 
tion strengthens; annoyance weakens.’ And then he would 
have us repeat the whole law. As a result, in the end we 
fixed it strongly in mind. It is certainly a great law. I 
never dreamed when I first heard it how much help it can 
give a teacher. But the more I watch my children learning, 
the more I believe that this law is the very bottom on which 
our learning rests and upon which we must base our school 
procedure.”’ 

‘‘Let’s go on and see how this law tells us what to expect 
in our teaching.”’ 

‘‘T believe I see already how it is all going to work out. 
Mind-set-to-an-end is purpose. If the child has a strong 
purpose, this as mind-set pushes him on to attain his end. 
This mind-set makes ready his inner resources for attaining 
the end. When he succeeds, these ready neurones and the 
success both mean satisfaction; and satisfaction means 
strengthening the bonds used. He learns by doing. His 
purpose helps him learn. It must be so. Mind-set, readi- 
ness, success, satisfaction, learning — they follow just this 
way. Am I not right?” : 

“You have certainly caught the clue.” 

“Does this explain the value of interest in learning? I 
have always believed that interest helped learning, but now 

I seem to see more in it than ever before.” 
untae aoe “Exactly so; to take interest in doing any- 

thing is to have a mind-set towards it. That 
means, as we saw, an inner urge to engage in that thing and 
readiness in sense and thought for whatever helps it along.” 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 31 


‘Why say ‘readiness in sense’? Do you mean that my 
eye actually sees things I am interested in better than it 
sees others? I thought the eye was like a mirror or camera 
and saw everything in front of it.”’ 

“The eye does see everything in focus before it, and, as a 
mere mirror, sees them indifferently; but you don’t see them 
that way. You pick out from all the things in front of your 
eye certain ones to pay attention to. When I say ‘You pick 
out,’ it would be more exact to say that your mind-set at 
the time, your various readinesses, pick out the things 
significant to these readinesses. Don’t you know that a 
girl on her way to buy a hat will see the shop windows of 
the milliners more certainly, more readily in fact, than the 
windows of the hardware stores? Her eyes, as bare optical 
instruments, may see the hardware windows, but that see- 
ing meets no response within. Actual and effective seeing 
is selective according to the mind’s set at the time. So 
with hearing and all the rest.”’ 

“Then the working of interest is a scientific fact, and not 
mere sentimentality. I had got the idea that really hard- 
headed thinking ignores interest. Haven’t we been told 
that?” 

“Possibly you have heard something like that, and some 
sentimentalists have brought just reproach on a good cause. 
But it is true beyond a doubt that interest is a significant 
factor in mental life and a positive help to learning.” 

“Tt seems, too, that you don’t oppose interest to effort. 
I thought some people held that you have to choose between 
interest and effort, that you can’t have both.” 

“You are certainly right that I don’t oppose er ene 
interest to valuable effort. Exactly the con- 
trary. Interest is the natural, indeed the only, basis of 
effort; the stronger the interest, the stronger, if need be, 
will be the effort.”’ 


32 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“You gave the Law of Effect as if it were scientifically 
established. Is it not true that some psychologists reject it? 
It seems to me I’ve heard about some rats 
learning a path quicker when they were pun- 
ished for going wrong than when they were 
rewarded for going right. What does this say about the 
effect of satisfaction?” 

‘““There are two replies to be made to that. First, the Law 
of Effect includes, as its statement shows, both satisfaction 
and annoyance. Whether the rats learned faster by punish- 
ment or by reward matters not to this law; either learning 
was by effect. The fastest learning, other things equal, is 
where both are used, satisfaction when they go right, 
annoyance if they go wrong. The other reply is that 
among psychologists Watson alone, so far as I have heard, 
denies the law, and he gets little if any backing in his 
contention. It is true that some very good psychologists 
have questioned whether the law as stated is ultimate. 
They do not deny the law as a fact, they merely propose 
to explain it by appealing if possible to more fundamental 
considerations.”’ 

“Suppose any one denied the law, could he consistently 
use punishment?” 

“Tf this law is not true, punishment has no place in the 
learning process strictly considered. To be consistent, one 
who denies this law would have to deny that the pain 
attached to going wrong helped the rats to learn more 
quickly the way out.” 

‘““T wonder if everyone understands the word ‘satisfaction’ 
in the same sense. Do you mean by satisfaction pleasure and 
by annoyance pain?” 

‘No. I do not mean to make satisfaction the same thing 
as pleasure. Sometimes they may be the same thing, more 
often not. If I had to choose single words as synonyms I’d 


Satisfaction 
and learning 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 30 


use success and failure. Indeed Woodworth uses these 
words instead of satisfaction and annoyance.” 

‘‘Well, won’t you please leave off this hair-splitting and 
arguing! If the laws you talk so much about are of any 
service, please go on and explain how we can use them.”’ 

“Very well. Take the very specific case of John who has 
not learned well his number combinations. Suppose he is 
called on in class for 7x9. He hesitates; it yoy the Law 
might be 72, or 56, or 63. Which is it? He of Effect 
tries them in this ee When he says 72, the WTS: 
teacher looks unimpressed, certain pupils Tae: raise their 
hands, one or two actually snicker, the teacher says ‘No.’ 
Now this response of 72 did not bring satisfaction because 
it did not succeed. He saw by the words and manners of 
teacher and fellows that 72 was the wrong response. The 
failure brought annoyance, and the snickers served to in- 
crease it. When he ventures 56, he is by reason of the pre- 
vious attendant annoyances the more anxious to find it 
right. This very anxiety increases the annoyance of failure. 
When finally he says 63 and it succeeds, his satisfaction is 
all the greater by reason of his previous failures and their 
attendant annoyances. Now the Law of Effect says that 
the next time he will be less likely than he was this time to 
say 72 or 56 and more likely to say 63. If this happens 
often and consistently enough, he will eventually say 63 at 
once without fail.’’ 

‘‘When you say ‘often enough’ you are using the Law of 
Use, are you not?” 

‘‘Axactly so. Any teacher knows that joining 42 correctly 
to 7 x 6 just once is not sufficient. More is needed to fix the 
learning. As we have always known, repetition 
is necessary. The Law of Use (or Exercise) Law of Use 
tells us that within limits the more often a 
response is made to a situation the closer becomes the 


34 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


bond connecting the two; that is, the more surely and 
smoothly is the response made when the situation presents 
itself.’ 

‘‘T am interested to ask how the two laws of Effect and 
Use work together. So far as I can see the Law of Use or 
Repetition merely says that the Law of Effect holds for the 
second instance and for the third and so on. Am I right or 
wrong? If the effect is satisfactory once and again and 
again, we build a habit of acting that way. If the effect is 
annoying once and again and again, we build a habit of not 
acting that way, even of aversion to acting that way. Is 
it not so?” 

“You are right as far as we have gone; at least that is 
what I think. But there are some instances where Use or 
Iixercise seems to be independent of satisfaction or annoy- 
ance. Suppose while we were here talking we heard a tre- 
mendous noise, the most deafening we had ever heard, do 
you think we should remember it?” 

‘““We certainly should and for a very long time.”’ 

‘Do you think the satisfaction or annoyance it gave us to 
hear it would make us remember it? Or would its intensity 
be the main thing?” 

“Tf the noise were intense enough to be the loudest we 
had ever heard, it would hurt our ears and be rather annoy- 
ing than satisfying. Still we should surely remember it, 
and the more, I believe, because it hurt. Don’t you think 
so? But this seems a denial and reversal of the Law of 
Effect. I am puzzled. What do you say?” 

‘‘T think we had better say that the intensity of the hear- 
ing exercise is the main thing.” 

‘We seem then to have two parts or aspects of the Law of 
Exercise, the number of repetitions and the intensity of the 
exercise.” 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 30 


‘“Yes, and there is a third, often called recency. Of two 
experiences otherwise equal we are more likely to recall the 
more recent one.” 

‘“‘Tsn’t that merely the Law of Disuse stated tae aie 
the other way about?” 

“Yes; if John goes many months without having 63 
follow 7 x 9, the connection weakens and he is less sure to 
think 63 when 7x9 confronts him. All learning tends 
thus to weaken and drop away.” 

‘‘Do you mean that eventually we shall forget every- 
thing?”’ | 

‘‘Oh no, not that. I said tends to weaken and drop away, 
and this is true. But if it is once very well: learned it 
may stay ‘on tap,’ as it were, a very long time, and in any 
event is more easily re-learned. Besides every time we do 
use any such connection (with satisfaction), we give it new 
life. You hear people say they remember things that hap- 
pened when they were three or four years old. They may be 
correct, but most of such memories have been kept alive 
by telling them every few years or at any rate by thinking 
them over.” 

‘““Haven’t I heard that people remember the pleasant 
things of life longer than the ordinary or the unpleasant 
things?’ Remembering 

‘here is some reason for thinking so. Al- pleasant 

most all grown-ups look back on childhood as “8s 

a period of almost unalloyed bliss, but most children do not 
think so at the time. This stronger hold of the pleasant may 
be due to the ‘effect’ of the original pleasure, but it may in 
greater part be due to the fact that we tend by the Law of 
Effect to think over the things that it gives us satisfaction 
to dwell upon in our minds, and similarly to turn away from 
recalling the unpleasant things. So the pleasant memories 
get more exercise than the unpleasant.” 


36 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Tf I understand you, we might sum it up as follows: 
Whether I am more or less inclined to repeat a response 
depends then on the number of times it is used with satis- 
faction or annoyance, as the case may be. Each instance 
of satisfaction inclines me more to repeat it; each instance 
of annoyance disinclines me to repeat it or, if you prefer, 
inclines me against doing it?” 

“Yes, the laws of Effect and Exercise work together 
that way.” 

‘‘ And if I go a long time without using a response, I lose in 
some measure the power and tendency to use that response?” 

‘Yes, that is the factor of Disuse.”’ 

‘‘But whether I shall remember an event depends largely 
on the intensity of the experience, independently of whether 
it was pleasant or unpleasant?” 

‘Yes, with the understanding that on the whole we tend 
besides to dwell on and so to think over pleasing things 
more than unpleasant ones, and in this further way the 
memories of the pleasing tend to outlast the memories of 
the unpleasing.”’ 

‘‘But some people seem to take pleasure in 
brooding over unpleasant things, such as slights 
and rebuffs.” 

‘Quite right; and since they get satisfaction from such 
brooding they remember these things longer. Many of the 
slights and rebuffs were only imaginary in the first place, but 
brooding over them fixes them in memory as truly as if 
they were real.” 

‘Does all this mean that the way we think about our 
experiences may determine their subsequent influence in 
Mow inking | OUl uVvesan 
guides “It certainly does, as moralists have always 
anes, known. Thinking may make all the difference. 
Suppose that I get angry with a man and while angry tell 


Brooding 
over slights 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 37 


him what I think of him and of his conduct, does it give 
me satisfaction or annoyance?” 

“Tf you are really angry, you'll enjoy telling him, especially 
if you see that it hurts. But later when you think it over, 
you may regret it. You will most likely regret it if you made 
a spectacle of yourself and if there were other undesirable 
consequences. The man may have been an old friend. 
The annoying circumstance may have been totally misunder- 
stood. In such circumstances, your initial satisfaction may 
turn to very great regret and annoyance.” 

“What is the ‘effect’ then? Am I more or less inclined 
next time to give way to angry words?” 

“Tf the annoyance of regret outweighs all the satisfactions 
involved, you are next time less inclined.’ 

‘But doesn’t it make a difference what I regret? I may 
regret losing control over myself; or as a small man I may 
regret having tackled unsuccessfully too big a man; or I 
may regret the injustice I was guilty of while still approving 
the use of angry words in resentment. Doesn’t the ‘effect’ 
depend on what I regret?’ 

‘You are quite right. If I regret losing my temper (no 
matter whether the other man was right or wrong, or large 
or small), then next time I shall more likely keep my temper. 
And if I do hold my temper next time successfully against 
provocation (and the greater the provocation the better for 
my subsequent self-control, if only I succeed) and if later 
consideration approves, then I have taken a step toward 
holding my temper as an abiding characteristic. I am be- 
coming a man of self-control. 

‘But if I only regret having picked too big a man, then 
next time, I’ll pick my man with more discretion, and I am 
on the road to making a pugnacious fellow of myself, per- 
haps a prudent one, perhaps even a bully; but still I am 
more likely thereafter to give vent to anger if only I think I 
can succeed in the controversy.” 


38 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Much depends then on thinking — much more, I see, 
than I had believed before.” 

‘‘Tgn’t there a lesson here for all teachers, that we should 
get our pupils to think carefully over what they do, so as 
to see wherein they have been right and wherein they have 
been wrong?” 

‘Yes, and it holds of all they do — writing a letter, baking 
a cake, making a box, playing a game, settling a quarrel.” 

“T don’t agree with you here. You may laud thinking 
all you want to. My opinion is that thinking without doing 
is worthless, even worse than worthless. People that are 
always thinking about their sins never have anything but 
sins to think about. They don’t help the world along. I 
had rather have one sturdy sinner that works than a dozen 
snarling hypocrites. Young hypocrites grow into old hypo- 
crites. Your plan gives them a bad start while they are 
young. You are wrong with your mere thinking. It’s 
action we want.’’ 

‘‘Not quite so fast. Who said we believed in thinking 
only and not in doing? Didn’t you notice a moment ago we 
euaninuete said: ‘And if I do hold my temper next time?’ 
to follow Do you think that actually holding your temper 
Se under provocation is not doing something? No, 
you have spoken too hastily. You are right in saying that 
thinking without doing is worthless, but you are wrong in 
intimating that we do not mean to stress doing.” 

‘“‘Haven’t we forgot that we were to discuss the laws of 
learning? It seems to me we’ve got off the track. This is 
all very interesting and I think valuable, but are there not 
some other laws? Last summer I heard a good deal about 
‘Association’ or was it ‘Associative Shift?’ My 
roommate talked about them a good deal, but 
I was not in the course with her. What do 
these things mean?”’ 


Associative 
Shift 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 39 


“Let me give an illustration I found. I think it makes 
this ‘association’ clear. A man put some savory meat in a 
dog’s mouth and at the same time rang a bell. 

Because of the meat the dog’s mouth watered; Pawlow’s dog 
that is, saliva began to flow. This was done 

frequently for many days. In the end, if only the bell were 
rung the saliva would still flow.” 

“Yes, that is a well known instance of Association or of 
Associative Shift or, as many prefer, of Conditioned Reflex. 
Can you tell us more about how it happened?” 

“T think so. At the beginning, of course, it was the meat 
only that made the saliva flow. The bell could have no such 
effect. But the bell being for many days rung in association 
with the presence of the meat and so in association with the 
actual flow of saliva, it finally came about that the bell’s 
ringing alone would suffice to start the saliva flow. This 
might seem mysterious if there were not so many other 
instances of the same thing in man and brute.” 

“This story sounds very curious to me. You say it really 
happened? I don’t know whether I believe it or not.” 

“Oh yes, it is a well authenticated experiment, in sub- 
stance often repeated. Haven’t we all seen dogs taught to 
stand at the word of command? That’s the same thing. You 
show the dog something he wishes and you hold the object so 
that he must stand up to get it. At the same time you say 
‘stand up.’ You repeat this till the ‘association’ is made. 
It’s all the same.” 

“Yes, I see that it is. Have you any more illustrations?” 

“Yes; a little child was shown a rabbit. She put out her 
hand to play with it. Just then a harsh noise was made close 
by. The child, being frightened by the HOSS Ny 
drew back her hand from the rabbit. The next itn at 
day the same rabbit was shown and the same 
frightening noise made; the child shrunk away and showed 


40 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


other signs of fear. This was kept up for several days 
until the sight of the rabbit without the noise would 
frighten the child. This is a very interesting case. At 
first the child had two natural (innate) responses: one, on 
seeing the rabbit (S), to wish to play with it (R); the 
other, on hearing the loud noise (S’), to draw back in 
fright (R’). In the end the response (R), playing with the 
rabbit, had yielded entirely to the response (R’) of 
fright. The sight of the rabbit (S) now made the child 
draw back in fright (R’).” 

“Don’t you think children learn many things in this 
way? I mean things like being afraid of the dark or of 
frogs or of gruff Uncle Henry, as the case may be?” 

“It often so happens. I think too that with young 
children punishment often acts by association in much the 
same way. After punishment the word of command may, 
by reason of its association, suffice.” 

‘Why do you say with young children? Is it different 
with older children?” 

“Tt may work differently with older children. Go back 
to the child and the rabbit. Suppose the child has seen 
how the noise was made. She might then not have associ- 
ated the noise with the rabbit but with the experimenter 
instead. If so, the child would not have come to fear the 
rabbit. The older the child the more likely she is to sepa- 
rate in thought the noise from the rabbit, and accordingly 
the less likely she is to fear the rabbit. So with punish- 
ment — it does not as a rule work so well with older chil- 
dren. ‘This is partly the reason.” 

‘‘Do you mean then that punishment succeeds better 
with children too young to think much?” 

‘Yes, this artificial kind of punishment does on the 
whole succeed better with young children. They are, you 
might say, more easily fooled. The association seems 


LEARNING AND HOW IT TAKES PLACE 41 


closer to them. With older people, other things being 
equal, the more arbitrary the punishment the less likely 
will the desired association be set up; while panichinent 
the more inherent the punishment the quicker and 

and better is the lesson learned. From the 29S°ciation 
artificial kind of punishment they may even learn wrong 
things, such as resentment, for instance, or cunning.’ 

“‘Isn’t part of this the same question we had before about 
regret? We learn according to where we place the satis- 
faction or annoyance?”’ 

“Yes, the older child makes distinctions that may break 
up the wished-for association and he naturally places his 
annoyance according to his analysis of the situation. When 
people whip children, or punish them in any way, they 
ought to be careful how the child thinks and feels about it. 
If he regrets his wrong-doing, he is less likely to repeat the 
evil act next time. If, however, he merely regrets being 
caught, he is less likely to be caught the next time. Pos- 
sibly some husky boy might afterwards regret that he 
stayed to take his punishment instead of running away. 
If this is how he feels, he will the next time be less likely 
to stay. He may run away.” 

“This is all very interesting. You know I never dreamed 
that psychology could tell us so much that we as teachers 
have needed to know. Of all this discussion about the laws 
of learning, what one thing do you think we need most to 
keep in mind?”’ 

“Tf I had to choose one thing, I should say the Law of 
Satisfaction and Annoyance. It has more new things to 
tell us than all the others. It is strategic.’ Serres 

“What do you mean?” value of the 

“T mean that our schools do not as a rule 1@¥ ° Effect 
pay as much attention to this law as they might. They 
fail to arouse readiness. They fail to see that the child 


42 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


gets satisfaction from desirable things. They otten seem 
to think that exercise alone suffices. They forget that exer- 
cise with annoyance may tear down. If our teachers thought 
mote about these things, they would succeed better.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 
See references at the end of Chapter IIT (page 51). 


CHAPTER III 
ANOTHER VIEW OF LEARNING 


““When we were talking last time, nothing much was said 
about the nervous system. I didn’t know that any one 
could talk about learning without discussing Thee 
neurones and synapses. We did last time ex- basis of 
actly what I had thought could not be done and king 
we managed pretty well, but I still think it helps to know 
about synapses.”’ 

“Well, I don’t know anything about synapses or those 
other things you mentioned, and I don’t want to. You 
people seem to revel in long words. I am dead against all 
such long-winded terminology. I have heard about a 
‘terminological complex,’ and I believe some of you have it. 
Why isn’t common sense good enough?”’ 

“All I can say is that this additional way of looking at it 
helps many people, including me. Perhaps if you studied 
it you'd like it. Any word that we don’t know seems 
strange. Surely you are not going to balk at words of no 
more than two or three syllables.” 

“Do I understand that there is another way of studying 
about learning? I thought we had found a pretty good 
way last week. Does the new way add anything to that 
way? Do the two ways fit together or does one contradict 
the other?”’ 

“There is another way, but the two ways do not contra- 
dict each other. Suppose we look at the other way. I 


think it helps greatly. You remember we said that all 
43 


44 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


conduct could be described by telling first the situation 
which calls for the conduct, and then by telling the response 
called forth. We call this the stimulus-response formula 
and we write it, as you know, S— R. Suppose some one 
tells you of a particularly spoiled boy and you ask for details. 
You may hear something like this: If you ask him a ques- 
tion (S), he just sticks out his tongue at you (R); if his 
mother tells him to be quiet (S), he goes right on hammering 
or shouting (R). Our question now is, What is there in 
this boy that makes him respond in such ugly ways when 
his sister is so different? If you ask the little girl a question 
(S), she answers very prettily (R); if her mother tells her 
to be quiet (S), she not only stops at once but says she is 
sorry she has disturbed (R). The outward situations are ~ 
the same for both children, but the responses we get are 
quite different. What makes the difference? Is it that the 
little girl cannot stick out her tongue or that the boy can- 
not answer our questions? No, either child could, in point 
of ability, do what the other one does. What then is the 
difference?”’ 

“The boy is just bad and the girl is just good, that’s all 
there is to that. What more can you say?” 

*“Wouldn’t you rather say that the boy has formed bad 
habits, while the girl has formed good habits?” 

‘““T’> locate the goodness or the badness in habits is much 
better, I should say, than merely saying ‘good’ or ‘bad’; 
but even these answers don’t carry us as far as we should 
like to go, or can go. We can study the nervous system 
as the carrier or immediate cause of behavior. Suppose we 
take a very simple case of conduct, one so simple as to be 
‘automatic,’ the knee jerk, for example. A man sits with 
one knee crossed over the other; the experimenter taps on 
the tendon just below the knee, and the man’s foot shoots 
forward with a jerk. This knee jerk is very quick. The 


ANOTHER VIEW OF LEARNING 45 


time has been measured and found to be about three- 
hundredths of asecond. But short as this time is, the move- 
ment is not so simple as might be thought.” 

“T think I have heard that in all such cases a nerve or 
set of nerves carries the stimulation in t0 ggisory and 
the brain or backbone and another set brings motor 
out the motor response. But can this be true "*™°n°S 
of so simple a case as the knee jerk response? Three- 
hundredths of a second seems too short a time.”’ 

“Tt is not too short a time. What you had heard is 
correct. There is always one set of neurones that carry in 
the stimulation and always another set that bring out motor 
response. Generally, if not always, there are ‘central’ 
neurones connecting these two.” 

‘A moment ago you said ‘nerve’ and now you say 
‘neurone.’ What is the difference?” 

‘A nerve is made up of many neurones, somewhat as a 
telephone cable is made up of many telephone wires. It 
is easier for us to think in terms of neurones.”’ 

“Do I understand that the neurone is the unit element 
in a connected system of communication?” 

“Ves, that’s about right.” 

‘And what is the synapse that was mentioned along with 
neurones earlier to-day?”’ 

‘A synapse is a junction point for two neurones, through 
which, or over which, a stimulation leaps. A neurone has 
always a receiving end branching out like a 
tree (called in fact a dendrite); it has a long 
central cord (sometimes called axon); it has 
finally a discharging end branching out like a brush. A 
synapse is a contact point where the branching receiving 
end of a second neurone is close enough to the branching 
discharging end of a first neurone to allow the current to 
jump across.” 


A synapse 
defined 


46 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Tf I could see a diagram I think it would help. What 
I can’t see, I can’t grasp.” 

‘Here is one which may be taken to illustrate the knee 
jerk reflex. This system consists of two neurones, ABC 
called the ‘sensory’ neurone, and DEF the ‘motor’ neurone. 
You can see how the stimulation follows the arrows. The 

experimenter tapped at A. The stimulation, 
fn Satie being received by the many sensory branches, 

then ran along the neurone ABC to a connec- 
tion (‘center’) in the spinal cord (the cord is not given in 
the figure). There it started a motor response stimulation 


A 





Fic. 1. Two neurones with synapse. 


which, running along the neurone DEF to F and spread- 
ing out there through the discharging endings, caused the 
appropriate muscles to act. This made the jerk.” 

‘‘Do you mean then that in the knee jerk the stimulation 
ran along a neurone to the spinal cord before the jerking 
response could be started?” 

“That is just what I mean. But generally, if not always, 
the connection is more complicated. There 
might be a ‘central’ neurone running along the 
spinal cord joining the sensory neurone with 
the motor neurone. And of course the reflex is the 


“Central” 
neurones 


ANOTHER VIEW OF LEARNING 47 


simplest kind of behavior. Voluntary acts are more com- 
plicated still. Many other neurones involving the brain are 
then to be found.” 

‘“You said this knee jerk is one of the simplest systems 
of neurones, requiring only three-hundredths of a second 
to take place. Do more complicated instances of conduct 
take longer?” 

“Yes and the more complicated the instance is, the 
longer the time required. To respond by pressing with 
one hand on an electric button as soon as the other hand is 
touched takes about fifteen-hundredths of a second. To 
respond similarly to sight takes about eighteen-hundredths 
of a second. When one must choose between two stimula- 
tions, responding to one and not the other, it takes longer. 
In general, the more thinking required, the longer it takes 
to respond.” 

‘Do you mean that in these longer time intervals there 
are more neurone connections involved?” 

‘Yes: that is, in general, true. Of course some people are 
quicker than others, but that is a different matter.” 

“Do you not think that so simple a diagram does more 
harm than good?”’ 

“T had thought it does more good, but what have you in 
mind?’’ 

“Just this. I once heard a very competent student and 
lecturer say that novices in this field are so likely to be 
misled by over-simplified diagrams that he for his part 
refused to use them.”’ 

‘“You think that the one we have just seen may be so 
simple as to mislead?”’ 

‘“‘T don’t know. I am asking for information.” 

“T look at the matter this way. There is danger that 
such simple diagrams may lead the novice to think the 
nerve structures back of behavior more simple than in 


48 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


fact they are; but, on the other hand, there is good reason 
to believe that simplified diagrams help much in under- 
standing how learning takes place.” 

‘As between the probable good and the possible danger 
you think the good outweighs?”’ 

‘Yes, provided we are careful to put the learner on his 
guard.” 

‘This all sounds very pretty, but what’s the use? How 
much more do we now know about learning and teaching?” 

‘Yes, tell us about learning.”’ 

‘One other thing is necessary. In life nothing is more 
common than to keep trying further responses if the first 
one doesn’t work. We spoke last week about 
a boy’s trying to recite his multiplication table 
and not knowing 7x9. We imagined him 
trying first 72, then 56, and finally 68. This kind of con- 
duct means the branching of neurones. A very simple 


case might be like this. 
Gs é — 


Fig. 2. Multiple response by the branching of a central neurone. (Adapted 
by permission from Woodworth, Psychology, Holt, New York, 1921, p. 39.) 


Repeated 
trials 







ANOTHER VIEW OF LEARNING 49 


‘“‘Before the teacher speaks the boy is ready (though he 
may not yet know it and he may of course change at any 
friendly suggestion) to offer answers in the order suggested, 
72, 56, and 63. This means that path (synapse) DE (the 
path to 72) is in better working order than either of the 
other two, the connection (synapse) being closer; and that 
path (synapse) FG (the path to 56) is in turn more closely 
connected than HI (the path to 63). 

“The teacher says ‘7x9?’ John answers, ‘72.’ It 
doesn’t succeed and some degree of annoyance ensues. 
The teacher repeats, ‘7x9?’ John then tries ‘56.’ Again 
failure and annoyance follow. The teacher again asks, 
‘7x9?’ John hazards his third try, ‘63.’ This time suc- 
cess and satisfaction result. 

‘Suppose the teacher at once asks again, ‘7 x9?’ What 
will happen?”’ 

‘“‘Tf the teacher asks at once and John is even normally 
bright, he will answer ‘63’ immediately.” 

‘Suppose she waits ten minutes and then asks John?” 

‘‘He may say ‘63’ or he may not, depending.” 

“Depending on what?”’ 

‘‘On whether he remembers.” 

‘“‘Could we say it in terms of the diagram? Perhaps we 
can find out something about remembering. At the be- 
ginning, path (synapse) DE was most closely 
connected, and path (synapse) HI was of these habit doa 
three least closely connected. If we ask at 
once after his success with 63, what then?” 

“Why, I suppose HI would then be most closely con- 
nected, and the other two less closely connected. But I 
don’t know. I have never thought about it this way before. 
Do you mean that something happens to the paths? Some- 
thing physical, I mean? Do these little branches change 
or get closer together or wider apart, as the case may be?”’ 


50 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“That is exactly what happens. Or at least that is the 
best opinion we have. Woodworth thus pictures four 
stages of a synapse as it is more and more 
closely connected through successful exercise, 
and a fifth where the connection has through 
disuse grown less strong. Of course, according to our pre- 
ceding discussion, failure and annoyance would also weaken 
a connection as truly as does disuse.”’ 


Learning re- 
sults pictured 


Repeated 


Fig. 3. The Law of Exercise in terms of synapses. The diagram shows four 
stages of a synapse as it is more and more closely connected through suc- 
cessful exercise and a fifth where the connection has, through disuse, 
grown less strong. (Adapted from Woodworth, Psychology, Holt, New 
York, 1921, p. 415.) 


‘Then learning means such a change in a synapse as makes 
closer that connection, thus rendering it more likely that 
the stimulation will take that path in preference to others?” 

‘Exactly so; that is what learning means, if we under- 
stand that the connection is made by use (and not, as we may 


ANOTHER VIEW OF LEARNING 51 


suppose sometimes happens, by mere bodily growth — the 
maturing of the child).”’ 

“Then that’s what learning means. I now see why you 
were so particular about that S—R. Learning means 
changing the path among the neurones so as to join a new R 
toanold $8. Yes, I see it now. This does add to our other 
discussion. I see better now what we then discussed.”’ 

‘‘ And those laws of learning all have reference to carrying 
stimulations along new paths so as to bring new responses?” 

“Yes. Success and satisfaction bring a closer connection. 
Failure and annoyance or disuse weaken the connection. I 
like to see it in terms of those little fibre endings reaching out 
toward each other or shrinking away — shrivelling up. It 
helps me a great deal.” | 

‘“‘T have a rather ridiculous thought in this connection. 
Have you ever seen a snail put out his horns, his feelers? 
If all goes well, they stick far out; but if trouble comes, the 
horns come in. Perhaps you'll laugh at me. But I think 
something like this of those little branching fibres. Success 
and satisfaction make them reach out. Failure and annoy- 
ance bring them back. Of course there is the difference that 
in permanent learning the fibres become (relatively) fixed. 
There the illustration breaks down.” 

‘““What does ‘readiness’ mean according to this idea?”’ 

“Tt means a temporary livening up of connections. 
Imagine a man who speaks well in two languages. If one 
addresses him in French, all the French word 
connections liven up, as it were, and the 
English connections go to sleep. When he sees 
a horse he thinks and says cheval.” 

““Wouldn’t you call this ‘set’ rather than ‘readiness’? 
It seems to me too inclusive, too widespread, to be called 
‘readiness.’ ”’ 

“Tf you think of the whole thing as one big inclusive 


Readiness 
and set 


52 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


change, I should say ‘set.’ If you think of the particular 
connections, I should say ‘readiness.’ ‘Set’ applies to the 
aggregate, ‘readiness’ to the individual neurone.” 

‘‘T think we can see this better than before. Each readi- 
ness comes because the appropriate neurone is joined up 
effectively with the others of the set.” 

‘“How do purpose and will enter in this physiological 
discussion?”’ 

‘We have practically answered that already. Remember 
that purpose is much the same as mind-set-to-an-end. If 
we speak of holding an end in view and of striving to attain 
it, we are but describing in other terms how 
set and readiness work. You will recall, in 
this connection, the little girl and her wish to 
get the doll. The set is a persisting tendency of organized 
neurones to respond in a certain fashion. The ‘effort to 
attain the end’ is the name we give this tendency. When 
this response is balked by any hindrance, the tendency 
may be strong enough to find a path for itself through 
related neurones. These neurones then become ready; and 
if they act, the resulting acts constitute what we call the 
‘step’ or the ‘means’ to attain the end in view. If they 
succeed in attaining the end, they give satisfaction and 
learning ensues.” 

‘This reminds me of a passage from Thorndike: 

‘“‘*Purposive behavior is the most important case of the in- 
fluence of the attitude or set or adjustment of an organism in 
determining (1) what bonds shall act, and (2) which results 
shall satisfy.’!” 


“Yes, that’s a good statement of the facts in the case.” 
“But where does will enter?” 
“Opinions differ. But mine is that will is merely an- 
other name for the action of a mind-set, especially where 
1 Educational Psychology, Vol. II, p. 51. 


Purpose and 
will 


ANOTHER VIEW OF LEARNING 53 


there have been conflicting tendencies and one tendency 
finally wins out.” 

‘Then you locate the will in the action of neurones?”’ 

6c Yes.’’ 

‘And learning results from the action of set and readi- 
ness?”’ 

“Yes, and habit and learning are respectively result and 
process. Learning has its results in habit, that is, in an 
abiding synaptic connection.” | 

“Yes, I see it all better now. It is clearer. TheS— Ris 
now richer in meaning. TheS makes me think of the branch- 
ing sensory receiving end, and the R the final branching dis- 
charging end that makes the response. The— is the whole 
path in between. Learning means such a change in those 
little synaptic fibres as makes the stimulation take a new 
path. This means of course that a new — now joins a new 
R to an old 8.” 

“Then neurones and synapses do help us to understand 
better what learning is and how it takes place?” 

“They help me.”’ 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING? 


THORNDIKE — Education, pp. 53-67, 95 ff. 

Gates — Psychology for Students of Education, pp. 23-27, 31-33, 
45-62, 222-236. 

Woopworti — Psychology, Ch. 2, 13, 16. 

THORNDIKE — Educational Psychology, Vol. II, 1-16 (Brief Cowrse, 
pp. 125-137). 


1 In this instance the readings are so arranged as to indicate the thorough- 
ness of treatment, the most exhaustive last. _ 


CHAPTER IV 
SIMPLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 


‘What I should like to see is how this psychology will 
work in school. I don’t care much for theory till I see it at 
Paycholozy to work. Some people seem to be satisfied with 
be put to the beauty of mere theory, but I don’t feel that 
ro way. I want it put to work.” 

“That pleases me, and I wish we could begin with my 
class. Ever since we have changed the schedule and my 
pupils have had so much marching through the halls they 
drive me crazy. March! They don’t march; they run. 
Unless I am there and watch them with an eagle eye I can’t 
get decent behavior. My principal is not overly exacting, 
but I have had several strong hints that my class needs 
toning up, or ‘toning down,’ if you prefer.” 

“Tn answer, let’s see what one teacher did in like circum- 
stances. She said one day to her class: ‘Your going through 
A ia ON LN halls is not so orderly as it might be; you 
from march- know it and others have been speaking of it. 
ing Today I am going to ask you to notice your- 
selves as you go, and when you come back I shall ask each 
‘ectytpil one who thinks he did not walk exactly as he 
wasto report should to raise his hand. I tell you in advance 
his own I shall not punish you. I shall do nothing about 
ich it beyond the show of hands, but f do wish you 
to notice and tell me.’ ”’ 

“Much good that would do my pupils. For many it would 
only add lying to noise. If I didn’t punish, or at least 


threaten it, they’d raise the roof.” 
54 


SIMPLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 55 


‘Wait till we have finished, and then see. These children 
at first seemed to take the matter much as you say yours 
would. They made at least as much disorder 
as usual; and when the hands were called for 
not very many were raised.”’ 

“Just what I told you. Children are naturally born that 
way. They won’t keep quiet and they will lie. At least 
some of them will. You have to punish. I admit I mainly 
threaten, and that doesn’t do much good. But what did 
the teacher do? She’d give up her sweet and gentle ways if 
she listened to me. But go on; I want to hear.” 

“The teacher stood and looked at the class, a bit dis- 
couraged. Then one boy, ignoring her, spoke up, pointing 
his finger straight at another boy near by: ‘You 

" j One boy re- 
ought to raise your hand. You made just as puked another 
much noise as the rest of us and you know you for not 
did.’ At this Boy Number 2 looked sheepish "P28 
and squirmed a little. Some others didn’t seem very happy. 
The teacher let it ‘soak in’ a while, then said: ‘To-morrow 
we'll try it again; and we wish then to see all the hands that 
ought to go up.’ 

“The next day she reminded them seriously, but not 
naggingly, that they were to walk quietly and that all hands 
were to come up where there had been disorder. yo... 

, ext time: 
This time there was less noise, but more hands; less noise, 
and what was equally significant, there was an ™ore hands 
air of conscious success about the class, not of smug satisfac- 
tion nor of having got ahead of anyone, but almost as if a 
victory had been won. The teacher, sensitive 
to such matters, could feel the difference. 
Moreover, although more pupils had confessed 
to disorder there was little or no sense of opposition between 
pupils and teacher. They seemed somehow to feel them- 
selves on her side. I need not prolong the story. They did 


Not all 
» reported 


Class feels 
the victory 


56 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


the same thing each day for a goodly number of days. The 
hands grew fewer and the order grew better. In the end the 
class could control itself reasonably in walking through the 
halls without teacher or monitor, and would, so far as the 
teacher could judge, tell the exact truth.’”’ 

“A good story of a good teacher, but I don’t see where the 
laws of learning came in. It was personality that did it. 
The class was good material to begin with. The teacher’s 
personality supplied the rest. I have always said that 
personality is the main factor in successful teaching. I knew 
a 99 





“But the laws of learning did enter. The teacher’s skill 
is evident, I grant you, and doubtless her personality was a 
How the laws 12ctor, but the laws of learning were skilfully 
oflearning and tactfully used. The teacher may not have 
were utilized thought about it in just that way, but the laws 
entered just the same, and we can see where and how.” 

‘Recently I saw two maxims that pretty well sum up 
our laws of learning: ‘Practice with satisfaction,’ and ‘Let 
annoyance attend the wrong.’ Let’s try these in this form 
and see how they work. I believe the short form maxims 
will help.” 

“Very well, if you wish, we'll use those. Let’s ask first, 
what did the teacher wish these children to practice?” 

‘Walking quietly through the halls.” 
What wee We Wasithatralley 
practiced MY i : 
Telling the truth.” 

“Yes she wanted them to practice these two things — 
walking quietly and telling the truth. Did they practice 
these two and with satisfaction?”’ 

‘At first, no. Well, I am not sure.” 

“What happened? Did the children walk quietly the 
first day?”’ 


1The incident is substantially true though details have been changed. 
W. H. K. 


SIMPLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 57 


“Some probably did. Many didn’t.” 

“Did they ‘practice with satisfaction’ or did ‘annoyance 
attend the wrong’?”’ 

‘Not much of either on the first day so far as I can see.” 

“Did they practice telling the truth?” 

“Some did. Some didn’t.” 

“Did annoyance attend the wrong?”’ 

“Not at first, but after that boy spoke I think it did. I 
think all who had untruthfully not held up their Anioyetee 
hands were ashamed. That was annoyance. after the boy 
And all who had held them up were then glad SP°Ke 
they had told the truth. That was satisfaction. And those 
who had walked quietly were more pleased than 
before that they had walked quietly. That was ra Panay 
satisfaction. I think that boy made them all 
think, and thinking directed satisfaction or annoyance to 
the right place.” 

“How was it the second day?” 

“More practiced walking quietly, and they got satisfaction 
from it both then and later when the time came to make a 
show of hands. Apparently all practiced telling 
the truth, and I am sure they got satisfaction 
from that. I don’t know what the teacher 
would have done if it hadn’t been for the first boy; but 
taking both together it worked finely. I can see how much 
more ready the children were after the first day both to 
watch their walking and to tell the truth afterwards.” 

“Your word ‘ready’ is very apt, though perhaps you used 
it independently of our discussion of ‘readiness.’ They 
were ‘readier’ to notice their walking and 
they were ‘readier’ to tell the truth. You re- 
call our law, ‘When bonds are ready to act, 
to act gives satisfaction.’ Did these children get satisfac- 
tion because of their readiness?”’ 


Practice with 
satisfaction 


How readi- 
ness entered 


58 ~ FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“TY think they did. Satisfaction if they walked better. 
Satisfaction if they told the truth.” 

‘‘Tt was a master stroke for the teacher to say she wouldn’t 
punish. They could tell the truth more easily, and they 
How it had no incentive to try to get ahead of her. It 
helped not § changed the whole situation. If the pupils con- 
to punish trolled themselves in walking, their thought in 
so doing was directed to the real thing and not to fear of 
punishment or other artificial elements.” 

“One of the best things in the situation was that pupils 
and teacher could get together in the matter. I think 
children often look at teachers as in some sense their ene- 
mies.”’ 

‘Hor those who walked in a disorderly manner, did annoy- 
ance attend the wrong? Were they not so pleased at telling 
the truth that they forgot about the wrong of disorder? 
And if they did forget wasn’t this ‘practice with satisfac- 
tion’ in wrongdoing?”’ 

‘“‘Hor the first few times there might be something in what 
you say but, as between the two, truthtelling is more im- 
portant. We could wait to get the other. However, telling 
the truth (as regards this particular thing) would easily be 
learned and then would come the wish not to have to hold 
up their hands.’ 

“Are we agreed then that this teacher did use the laws 
of learning?”’ | 

“There is no way out of it. She did use them and use 


them wisely.” 

‘And do we see how much better it is to see what the 
teacher did and how the laws were used than to fall back 
“Personality” OD a blanket term like ‘personality’?”’ 

a poor I wonder if we don’t mean by personality 
explanation the power and disposition to use (consciously 
or unconsciously) these laws skilfully and tactfully?” 


SIMPLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 59 


“Perhaps so, if we add to it a nice consideration for 
others.’’ 

“Do I understand from this illustration that we should 
try to arouse a ‘readiness’ for practicing the right (whether 
of conduct or of lessons) and then be sure that satisfaction 
attends the right and annoyance the wrong? Is that all?” 

“That’s the most of it. Readiness, exercise, and effect, 
these three sum up the conditions of learning.” 

“T wonder if public opinion didn’t play a part in this 
case, and if so what the laws of learning had to do with it.” 

‘Almost surely public opinion entered, at any rate after 
the first. When that first boy spoke, all who had told the 
truth felt that the others had acted unfairly. y,, mabe 
This boy’s words directed and voiced the dis- opinion 
approval. This public opinion was keenly alert PEM 
the next day and afterwards to see that the truth was told.” 

“That’s all right, but I don’t see any laws of learning.” 

“Why, this public approval or disapproval would in- 
crease the satisfaction or annoyance as the case might be 
of all who acted with or acted against the public 
opinion. It increased the readiness to prac- aaa 
tice the right. This brought more surely the utilized the 
exercise of the right, and then gave greater pte 
effect to the satisfaction or annoyance according 
as right or wrong had been done. Certainly the laws of 
learning entered.”’ 

‘From this discussion one would infer that the laws of 
learning enter always and everywhere. Is that true?” 

“Certainly it is true. The laws of learning are always 
present in conduct just as the laws of chemistry are always 
present in chemical phenomena.” Te 

“Tf that is true, why bother about them? learning al- 
If they are bound to be present, they will take W#¥S Present 
care of themselves. Why all this fuss?” 


60 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“They are always present, but they need not work for 
us. They may work against us. In the chemistry labora- 
We mustsee %TY, explosions sometimes do great damage. 
that they The laws of chemistry work in such explosions 
work forus as truly as when things go the way we wish 
them. It is our business to know how things will work so 
that we may make them work for good rather than for evil.” 

“Do you mean that when a mother ‘spoils’ a baby she is 
following the laws of learning?’’ 

‘Certainly she is following the laws of learning, and this 
whether she ever heard of them or not. Let’s follow up 
“Spoiling” the illustration. What do we mean by a 
andthe laws ‘spoiled’ child?” 
of fearning ‘Tf he wishes anything, nothing else must get 
in the way. If you won’t give it to him, he’ll make himself 
disagreeable till you do.” 

‘“A child who acts as if nothing but his wishes count. 
If he can’t have what he wants, he’ll make himself dis- 
agreeable till he gets it.” 

“Very good. Now these characteristics are habits of 
conduct, habits of thought and behavior. How did it 
come about that this child thinks that nothing but his 
wishes should be considered? Did he not learn it?” 

‘“‘Tf it is a habit, he must have learned it.”’ 

‘‘ And if he learned it, he must have practiced it. Isuspect 
that he ‘practiced this with satisfaction.’ What say you?” 

“IT suppose you are right. His mother or nurse or 
grandfather — somebody — let him ‘practice with satisfac- 
tion’ this wrong idea.” 

‘‘And when he learned it he was following the laws of 
learning?” 

“Yes, I see that he was. It can’t be otherwise. He got 
what he wanted by being disagreeable; that is, he practiced 
being disagreeable and satisfaction was allowed to attend. 


SIMPLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 61 


I see it. The laws hold all the time. It is our business to 
see that they work for the good and not for the wrong.” 

“Why can’t we have an illustration from arithmetic or 
geography or English composition. If the laws of learning 
are useful, why shouldn’t we teachers put them to work 
for us?”’ 

‘There is no reason why we shouldn’t, and every reason 
why we should. Only it is not always easy.” 

‘Why isn’t it easy?” 

“Because for one thing we don’t always adapt school 
work to child nature. If we don’t — and in the degree that 
we don’t — we shall find it difficult to get readiness for our 
lessons, or to get in any high degree satisfaction from learn- 
ing them. We are in danger of getting mostly annoyance.” 

“You are right there I suppose, though I don’t just 
know what you would do. But can’t we find some illus- 
trations that fit ordinary school work?” 

“Certainly we can. Have you ever seen children inter- 
ested in writing a letter?” 

“Yes, I remember when my fourth grade was going to 
invite the fifth grade to see their play, they planned to 
write a letter inviting them to come and ex- ; 4, eine 
plaining why the play was given. They were and the laws 
much interested.” pe 

‘Did the questions of spelling or of capitalization or of 
margins come up?”’ 

‘“They did, and the children took more pains to get that 
letter right than any other they wrote for me.”’ 

“Was there readiness for learning the right forms?”’ 

“Indeed there was readiness. That is what interest 
means, doesn’t it? They applied what they found to be 
the best practice, and they showed great satisfaction when 
at last they had a letter no one of them could find fault 
with.” 


62 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“‘Did they learn anything?”’ 

“Surely they learned. After that we had almost no 
trouble with the right form of letter arrangement. I 
think I never saw a class learn it more quickly. They got 
some new rules about capitals that stayed with them too. 
There were still other things they learned — how to enter- 
tain guests, for one thing. They had a committee to 
meet the incoming class, show them seats, give them pro- 
grams, and after the play was over to serve them refresh- 
ments. They were as pleased as Punch over it all. Two 
years later the sixth grade teacher told me that some of 
the girls with her had used this experience as a kind of 
model for an entertainment that class was giving.” 

‘“‘Did the laws of learning enter?”’ 

‘Yes, indeed; there was readiness, exercise, and satisfac- 
tion all along the line. ‘There was annoyance too over some 
mistakes made. They talked it all over afterwards to see 
what was right and what was wrong. In this I think 
satisfaction and annoyance were well directed to successes 
and failures.” 

‘‘But we still don’t have illustrations of everyday les- 
sons. You all get eloquent over exceptional instances. I 
want something to help the daily grind. Do you give it 
ivyave: 

‘‘By no means. Take the dryest lesson of them all. 
Maybe it ought not to be dry, maybe it ought not to be 

taught where it is, or perhaps not taught at 
How success 4 nes : 
utilized the all. But supposing it is going to be taught, we 
laws of ean still help. Perhaps the best place of all 
learning ; ; x 
for helping is to work for success, for nothing 
succeeds like success, and nothing fails like failure.” 

‘“What do you mean by ‘work for success’?”’ 

‘IT mean, plan your work so that each child can feel that 
he succeeds. If he succeeds to-day, he will be readier to 


SIMPLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 63 


attack to-morrow. This new readiness not only makes 
success likelier but adds to it increased satisfaction. And 
satisfaction means learning. I have seen bad boys almost 
made over when they at last got hold of some work they 
could really do.”’ 

“Would you then make the work easy so that they 
would surely succeed? Or is there danger from this?”’ 

“There is great danger of having work too easy. In 
fact success is hardly sweet unless it follows effort. Diffi- 
culties that challenge are best. To succeed yeitner too 
after putting forth all short of the last ounce of easy nor 
energy is of all successes the most satisfying. ‘°° pate 
We wish then activities difficult enough to challenge us, to 
put success really in jeopardy, but not so difficult that 
success does not come at last.” 

‘‘Tf I understand you, success in the face of such diffi- 
culties brings greater satisfaction and so increases the 
learning. Is this true of all the details of the activity?” 

‘‘The question is a good one. It is true of all the de- 
tails in so far as greater difficulty gives increased considera- 
tion. Much beyond that I should not care to go. It is 
further true, moreover, that one’s interest along such lines 
is likely to grow, and favorable attitudes toward teacher 
and school are likely to be built as well as toward the subject 
and toward one’s fellow-workers who share the difficulties 
and the successes.”’ 

“You speak of attitudes. Are they acquired in accord- 
ance with the same laws of learning?”’ Aihpeanel eat 
“Fxactly the same. It is ‘practice with the laws of 

satisfaction’ that builds an attitude, just as sca 
truly as it builds good handwriting or truthtelling or 
anything else.”’ 

‘‘Haven’t I heard that good teachers are using problems 
more frequently in geography and history than formerly?” 


64 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Yes, and these illustrate well our laws of learning. A 
problem, felt as such, challenges thought. This guides the 
Hee a oh search for an answer, and gives satisfaction 
lem utilizes When pertinent material is found. Having a 
meh of problem, we have something to tell us when we 

e have found the solution, and finding the solution 
is satisfying in the degree that we were anxious to find it 
and had to work for it. This satisfaction makes an earned 
solution stick in mind in a way that need not be expected 
of the merely ‘handed out’ solution.” 

“What do you mean, ‘earned’ solution, ‘handed out’ 
solution?” 

‘Did you ever work an original problem in geometry? 
If so, you will remember how much easier it was to remember 
your demonstration than even a shorter demonstration 
given in the book. You had earned it. The other was 
‘handed out.’ The same holds in geography or history or 
physics or economics, everywhere that man is man. An 
earned solution sticks.” 

‘An earned solution gives self-reliance too.”’ 

“Indeed it does. Success after a challenge adds to one’s 
confidence in such matters. It is an awful pity that teachers 
do not play more consistently for such successes among their 
pupils.”’ | 

“Then you believe in the modern tendency toward the 
Modern tend- USe of problems?”’ 
ency to use ‘Indeed I do. I hope we may discuss the 
Ea matter later in much greater detail.” 

‘“‘Isn’t this problem attitude really an instance of mind- 
set with all the attendant readinesses?” 

“It is exactly that and that is the very subject we ought 
to consider next — mind-set and learning. Meanwhile, be- 
fore we separate, let us see where we stand. What have we 
discussed to-day? How shall we say it?” 


SIMPLER INSTANCES OF LEARNING 65 


“The laws of learning hold all the time. They may 
work against us. We must make them work 
for us.” 

“Practice with satisfaction’ and ‘Let annoyance attend 
the wrong.’ These together made an alternative statement 
of the law of effect. I like these short forms myself.” 

‘“““We cannot learn what we do not practice’ has been 
implied at several points, though I believe it was not so 
worded.”’ 3 

‘Readiness, exercise, and effect — these three include 
practically all.” 


ummary 


CHAPTER V 
Minp-SET AND LEARNING 


‘Shall we begin where we left off last time, with mind-set 
and learning?”’ 

“Ves, do. I think I see how it goes but I want to hear the’ 
discussion. Mind-set brings readiness; and readiness and 
successful effort both mean satisfaction; and 
satisfaction means learning. Couldn’t we have 
a practical illustration? They always help me.” 

‘By all means if you like. Suppose a girl has asked her 
mother’s permission to make a dress ‘all by herself’ and her 
mother has at last consented. What do you say? Is there 
any mind-set?” 

‘“‘T should say so; there is a very definite mind-set. I 
remember something like this when I was young, and I was 
nearly wild with enthusiasm and determination. I was 
bent on showing all the family that I could make a dress. I 
chose a party dress, because I had been invited to go to a 
more important party than usual and I thought I had no 
suitable dress. Yes, there is a definite mind-set.” 

‘‘And what about an inner urge?”’ 

‘‘What do you mean by ‘inner urge’? Is there also an 
outer urge? And are the two different?”’ 

‘Tet me answer that. I know the difference. Sometimes 
I find a boy determined to do something, say make an air- 
plane. The urge is inside the boy. I may try to discourage 
him, others may laugh at him, he may find difficulties; but 
as long as he feels that way inside he will persist in spite of 


all outside interferences. That’s an inner urge. But sup- 
66 


Mind-set and 
learning 


bad 


MIND-SET AND LEARNING 67 


pose the boy’s father tells him to mow the lawn, and the boy 
does it only because his father makes him; the urge here is 
outside. With an outer urge, one will give up at the first 
opportunity. If any interference comes along, he will try 
to take it as an excuse to stop. This girl had a strong 
inner urge to make the dress. A strong mind-set to ac- 
complish an end means exactly a strong inner urge. Am I 
not right?”’ 

“Exactly right. But now tell us what else this girl’s 


“strong mind-set means besides an inner urge?”’ 


“You called it further back a ‘mind-set-to-an-end.’ I 
should say it means a clear and definite end in view, a strong 
purpose with a clearly defined end. Here the end was to 
make a dress that would fit and be becoming, and call forth 
favorable comments from all who saw it and arouse their 
wonder that so young a girl should make so pretty a dress. 
The strong mind-set meant setting up this sort of end.”’ 

‘‘And what about readiness or unreadiness?”’ 

“TI know; it was just what we had before. The mind-set 
makes this girl ready to see and examine dresses and styles 
and patterns and fabrics, and to hear people 
talk about such matters, and to read Vogue 
and the Delineator.”’ 

“Yes, it will make ready for action all the mechanisms in 
the girl’s mental make-up that might have to do with 
making the dress. ~ But what about unreadiness?”’ 

‘We had that too. It makes the girl unready to do any- 
thing else. I dare say she is more or less of a nuisance about 
the house till the dress is finished, for she won’t want to be 
called on to care for the baby or to set the table or even to 
be told that it’s bed time. Yes, all the mechanisms whose 
action might interfere will be distinctly unready to act.” 

‘What does all this mean for thinking? Does this girl 
think?” 


Set and 
readiness 


68 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘Certainly she thinks. She has to choose the style in 
which she will make the dress. That takes thinking and a 
great deal of it. I fancy she’ll have everybody 
in the house nearly crazy looking and passing 
judgment, unless she is the kind of girl who somehow already 
knows her own mind. Of course she has to choose the 
material, and watch the price so as not to exceed her supply 
of money. After that there will be the pattern and how to 
lay it on, how to cut out the material, etc., etc. Yes, she 
has to think. 

“An important matter is this—-What guides her 
thinking? What tells her what to think? It is the end in 
view that guides. Here it is exactly the kind of dress she 
wants to make that guides her thinking. In this case it is a 
party dress. Her purpose to make this dress guides her 
thoughts, at least in a large way, all the time. Some 
smaller purposes, specific subordinate ends I suppose you 
would call them, guide at other times; but all have to fit 
together.” 

“You say all have to fit together. Is this what some call 
‘organization’?” 

‘“BHxaetly, this is what is meant by organization. Every- 
thing she does — buying, planning, cutting, sewing — all 
have to work consistently together or she will not have the 
kind of dress she wants. I should say there is opportunity 
here for the best kind of organization. How to organize 
her efforts is part of what she had to learn, and an important 
part.” 

‘But are you not leaving out the most important thing? I 
mean the learning. I can see how the girl’s purpose means 
a definite end in view and an inner urge to 
attain that end. I can see too how these things 
mean an efficient organization of effort — in 
fact the whole thing seems to be working for efficiency of 


Thinking 


Purpose and 
learning 


MIND-SET AND LEARNING 69 


action. But I don’t yet see where learning comes in. Can 
you explain more clearly?” 

‘All we need is to apply the results of our previous dis- 
cussion. Learning mainly comes by the Law of Effect. Any 
movement of mind or body that succeeds (or brings satis- 
faction) has for that reason a better chance of being used 
again. Similarly any movement that fails has a smaller 
chance. This better (or lesser) chance of being used again 
we call ‘learning.’ The greater the feeling of success or 
failure (satisfaction or annoyance) the more definite the 
learning.! Now if the girl has a strong interest in making the 
dress, what she does by way of successful planning or execu- 
tion brings great satisfaction. Wherein she fails, she feels 
annoyance. This success (satisfaction) fixes in her nervous 
system the success-bringing movements. The annoyance 
in like manner tends to cut out for the future the failure- 
bringing movements. When the girl has finished her dress, 
each step that helped make it a success is more firmly fixed 
in her (as a habit or skill or memory), and each step that hurt 
will less likely be used again. And not only are the separate 
steps thus fixed (or dropped out, as the case may be), but so 
likewise are the connections of one step with another. The 
organization as an effective whole is fixed in the girl’s mental 
make-up. The stronger the purpose and the more definite 
the success (or failure) the stronger and more definite the 
learning.” 

‘““You have said nothing about the factor of readiness 
here. Does that play any part?” 

“Yes, indeed. The readiness we discussed as growing 
out of the mind-set not only prepares each pertinent mechan- 
ism for use but accords satisfaction when used. We then 
have, as it were, satisfaction coming possibly from two 


1Except in some extreme cases where such factors as consternation or 
paralysis of action interfere with the learning process. 


70 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


sources: first, from the readiness of the mechanisms used, 
and second, from the resulting success. This fact means 
the possibility of better learning.”’ 

‘“How does consciousness help? Does it have any part 
in the learning process as here described? I have heard some 

say that this too is an important factor.”’ 
Consciousness = Tndeed it is an important factor in learning. 
and learning : f 

Its function here is at least three-fold: first, 
to connect more surely and definitely the various responses 
with their several appropriate stimuli that they may be 
properly and strongly joined together for learning; second, 
to attach satisfactions or annoyances more precisely where 
they severally belong and so bring about the right learning; 
and third, by emphatic attention to heighten the satisfaction 
or annoyance felt and so increase the learning. It is for these 
reasons, among others, that we are most anxious that pupils 
think while they act and consciously intend the several steps 
they take.” 

‘“You do not mean then that in purposeful activity all 
the success-bringing movements or steps are equally well 
learned or remembered?”’ 

‘“‘Indeed, no. At one time the girl who made the dress 
needed to pick up her scissors from the floor. She probably 
did so as a matter of course and will never think of it 
again; but she will think of the store in which she bought 
the goods for her dress. One movement has significance; 
she thinks about it, and she will remember it. The other 
has such slight significance to her that she doesn’t think 
about it at the time and so will not remember it in the 
future.” 

‘But you don’t mean to say that remembering is all there 
is to learning?’’ 

“Most certainly, no. As thinking is not all of life, so 
remembering is not all of learning. Remembering, that is, 


MIND-SET AND LEARNING 71 


recalling to mind, is a very important kind or instance of 
learning; but the skill to use a tool or the tendency to 
repeat an act are instances of Se nee that are 

: ; Remembering 
not well described as remembering.” not the only 

““Didn’t the older education mainly think of Hs of 
learning as remembering?”’ aes 

“Yes, I think it did; and it was, as we say, too exclusively 
bookish. We are now stressing habits, attitudes, and appre- 
ciations, which our schools formerly too much overlooked.” 

“And you think that purposeful activity, under a strong 
mind-set, helps in all kinds of learning, habits, skills, attitudes 
and appreciations as well as in things properly to be remem- 
-bered?”’ 

“Yes, that’s what I think.” 

‘“What about the presence of a difficulty? Does it help or 
hurt?” 

“Tf not too great, it may help appreciably. Success after 
overcoming a difficulty yields greater satisfaction.” 

‘“Once before we spoke of the effect of a difficulty to spur 
to action. Ought we not say something about that here?”’ 

“You are quite right. It is recognized by competent 
psychologists that when one is pursuing an end any obstacle 
(not too great) serves to spur to greater energy yoy an 
and effort. Not only then are more of one’s obstacle spurs 
inner resources thus called into play, but success * °#or 
attained under such circumstances is sweeter when it comes. 
The increase of attention occasioned by the obstacle and 
the greater satisfaction from success both increase the learn- 
ing. You are right; reasonable difficulties enhance the 
probable educative effect of the enterprise.”’ 

‘Toes this mean that we are to put hindrances and diffi- 
culties in the way of students? Is there not danger that they 
will resent this?”’ 

‘There would be great danger of resentment. No, I 


@2 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


should not place artificial difficulties in the way. Rather 
should the teacher know these psychological facts and en- 
courage the students to undertake enterprises neither so 
easy as to fail to challenge their powers nor so difficult as to 
discourage. Between these limits lie the best educational 
results.” 

‘““Won’t you please sum this up for us? I think I have the 
main points, but I should like to have it in more systematic 
form.” 

‘That it may be clear that the same analysis holds true 
of academic activities as in the case of the girl with her dress, 
suppose we make a tabular statement showing how a strong 
mind-set acts in both kinds of activities. Imagine now that 
Siegen opt het boy who likes mathematics is brought face to 
mind-set and face with a certain difficult problem. The 
care teacher says that this is an unusually hard prob- 
lem, that he doesn’t know whether any member of the class 
ean solve it or not, though they have now had enough 
mathematics to enable them to solve it. He’d like them to 
try, but he is not very hopeful. The boy feels in this a defi- 
nite challenge. He proposes to solve that problem and to 
solve it all by himself. He attacks it, but it doesn’t yield 
at once. He redoubles his efforts. We have then a clear 
case of study and, let us suppose, of eventual success under 
the influence of a very strong mind-set-to-an-end. We find 
accordingly for this boy (and for the girl making her dress): 


“1. A definite end in view. The boy is definitely determined to 
solve the problem all by himself. (The girl is definitely 
determined to make an excellent dress.) 


“2 An inner urge to attain this end. The teacher has not re- 
quired the problem, but the boy is strongly urged on by 
himself from within to solve it. (So with the girl, making 
the dress is her own enterprise. She acts from her own 
inner urge.) 


ee 


“4 


lati 


wey 


ag 


“Q. 


MIND-SET AND LEARNING 73 


Readiness in all the boy’s pertinent inner resources. All his 
knowledge and skill, all his available ideas, are in a state of 
readiness. They rise up, as it were, earnestly desiring to 
be used. (It is the same with the girl.) 

An unreadiness for thwarting activities. He has real difficulty 
for the time being to enter wholesouledly into his other 
lessons. He can hardly cease thinking about the problem. 
(The same is true of the girl.) 

The inherent difficulties spurring to greater efforts. The dif- 
ficulties met, beg not insuperable, do not discourage but 
call forth more conscious attention and stimulate to even 
greater efforts. (True of boy and girl alike.) 

The end defines success for him. He won’t count it success 
unless he solves the problem beyond a question and by his 
own unaided efforts. (Success with the girl means a dress 
that she and others will approve, made all by herself.) 
Success attained brings satisfaction. The stronger the mind- 
set and the greater the difficulties successfully overcome, 
the greater will be the satisfaction of success. (True of 
both alike.) 

Satisfaction means fixing the responses that brought success. 
When he finally sees the solution, the way out of the diffi- 
culty, the satisfaction attending will by the Law of Effect 
fix in him the success-bringing steps. (The satisfaction will 
fix in the girl’s nervous system each success-bringing step, 
whether of knowledge or of skill, and the organization of 
all into one whole.)’’ 


‘“Do you mean by ‘fixing the success-bringing steps’ that 
the boy will remember the solution?”’ 

““Yes, I mean that and more. Solving the problem 
means seeing the elements of the problem in a certain ap- 


propriate relationship. Now the satisfaction of 
success will fix in him this relationship. It will 


How success 
acts 


be almost impossible for him to forget it. 
Moreover, his mind will in sheer pleasure at hard-earned 


74 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


success play back and forth over the main success-bringing 
steps, so that exercise with renewed effect will fix this yet 
more strongly in his mind. Each time he shows his solution 
to an appreciative listener, this fixing process will again be 
repeated. And there is yet more. This present success 
will make him more inclined to attack the next challenging 
problem he meets; and he will for the same reason find 
it easier the next time to get into the spirit of seeking; the 
mind-set to study having this time brought success will the 
next time more readily-call into play the boy’s available 
mathematical resources for solving such a problem.”’ 

‘And are the like things true of the girl?”’ 

‘“‘Indeed, yes. The results to her are in effect the same. 
Her success fixes it all in her mind. She too will delight 
to think it over and talk it over. . She too will be encouraged 
by this success to attempt more difficult feats of sewing. 
Another time it will be easier for her to get into the mind- 
set necessary for successful dressmaking. The next time 
her experiences will be better available when needed.” 

“Ts this why purposeful learning is so much advocated 
now?” 

‘“Yes, only there are still other reasons for wishing to 
utilize the child’s purpose. ‘There is in the first place more 
likelihood of success. The strong inner urge 
will mean stronger efforts. Then there is 
greater probability of a good organization’s re- 
sulting. The definite end makes it easier to form an effec- 
tive organization, because there is something to guide the 
steps. This is more evident where the effort to attain the 
end involves the assembling and uniting into one whole of. 
many obviously different steps. The third reason for 
wishing the strong purpose is the one above described, 
that the learning takes place better. The learning not only 
comes more quickly, but it is more abiding when it does 


The function 
of purpose 


MIND-SET AND LEARNING 75 


thus come. ‘The satisfaction following success brings about 
this result by the Law of Effect.’ 

“You have not said anything about annoyance. Does 
that not enter into the situation?”’ 

‘Yes, but negatively. The steps that lead nowhere 
bring annoyance, and for that reason they tend to drop 
out, not to be repeated the next time. This is 3...) taiture 
the other half of the Law of Effect.’’ and annoy- 

“TDoesn’t the satisfaction of such success 22°¢ 4% 
affect also the associate suggestions and the concomitant 
learning that we discussed in Chapter I?” 

‘Indeed it does; but we ni leave that until we have 
taken up the ‘tai of coercion.’ 

“Tt is good to talk about such things. Already teaching 
means more to me. Heretofore I have been 
an artisan in,the work. Now I see that we eine 
may become artists at teaching.” 

*‘And the art is based on science.” 

ia§ Yes 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Kiipatrick — The Project Method, pp. 8-11. 

THORNDIKE — Educational Psychology, Vol. II, 2138-234 (Brief 
Course, 208-224). 

WoopwortH — Psychology, pp. 69 fi., 74 ff., 542. 

Kitpatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, 
No. 501, 512, 513. 


CHAPTER VI 
COERCION AND LEARNING 


‘“‘T understand we are to discuss coercion and learning. 
T hope we may take a clear case of coercion and carry through 
the whole process. I want to see each step, for I find it 
a difficult subject.” 

‘Before you do that, I have a preliminary question. 
What does coercion mean? Must there always be another 
person to do the coercing or might impersonal circumstances 
coerce? Might one even coerce himself? I wish you’d 
make this clear.”’ . 

“To say what meaning a word shall have is not easy. 
Different people see things differently, and differing situ- 
ations sometimes require differing senses of 
meaning; but if there is possible doubt we 
must say what meaning we propose to use. 
Let’s begin with the clearest case of coercion, which is 
certainly where one person forces another into doing some- 
thing he wouldn’t otherwise do. Suppose a boy has planned 
to go swimming with the other boys and his mother in 
spite of his tearful pleading forbids, and ‘forces’ him, as 
we say, ‘against his will’ to stay at home and ‘mind the 
baby.’ Suppose further that before he will yield she has 
to threaten punishment, and even after the other boys have 
gone she has to speak sharply to ‘make’ him treat the baby 
decently and care for her properly. What, now, are the 
characteristic elements in this instance of undoubted co- 
ercion? As it is an extreme case, we may expect the ele- 


ments to stand out in unusual relief. First, in point of 
76 


The meaning 
of coercion 


COERCION AND LEARNING 77 


time we find a mind-set already occupying the stage of 
action. This mind-set would, unless thwarted, result in a 
certain line of conduct; namely, in his going swimming with 
the boys. Second, there arises some interposition, felt by 
the one coerced to come more or less from the outside, 
which sets up the essential coercion; namely, a state of 
affairs that thwarts the activity already under way and 
against the will of the coerced directs experience along 
another and, under the circumstances, undesirable line. 
Third, the one coerced accepts, but against his will, the new 
line of conduct because he fears a threatened and still more 
unacceptable alternative. 

“This is of course an analysis and description, not a 
logical definition. The emphasized words must have been 
experienced in order to be understood; but, having been 
experienced, their meaning is fairly definite. With these 
understood, the essential elements of coerced activity 
stand out.’ 

“It seems to me, then, that whether you call any such 
experience a case of coercion depends upon the attitude of 
the one concerned, whether there arises in him PEL Fl: 
a contrary set which inwardly rejects while matter of 
there is outward yielding.” ead 

‘Yes, I think you are right, and the more definite the 
inner rejection, the clearer is it a case of coercion.”’ 

‘Might it not happen that what began as a clear case of 
coercion would cease to be such because the coerced person 
changed his mind, the inner attitude shifting from rejection 
to acceptance?”’ 

“You are quite right, and the possibility of this is a 
matter of great practical importance for the educator.” 

‘Would you not also need in this discussion to say whether 
you were thinking of the one who did the coercing or the 
one who felt coerced?”’ 


78 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘Perhaps so, and the instance given above was in terms 
of the attitude of the one coerced. Whether he learns or 
not is our concern; so we have given our analysis and dis- 
cussion in terms of his attitude. We have in our past dis- 
cussions seen clearly that the attitude of the learner affects 
his learning. That’s why it is emphasized in our present 
discussion.” 

‘Have we sufficiently answered the question as to 
whether coercion must come from another person or might 
proceed from circumstances?”’ 

“T think so. The question is one of fact. This inner 
attitude of rejection is most easily and most typically 
aroused by persons, possibly because their motives are both 
complex and hid and are accordingly the more easily mis- 
taken, and resentment is thus more readily stirred. Re- 
sentment, I may add, seems a typical accompaniment of 
coercion. The young and hotheaded may entertain feel- 
ings of resentful and rebellious rejection against mere im- 
personal circumstances, where older and calmer persons 
would accept such thwarting as inevitable. To the one 
group this kind of thwarting would be coercion, to the 
other it would not. But the two undoubtedly merge into 
each other in intermediate cases.” 

‘Can, then, a person coerce himself?”’ 

‘After the discussion given, the question is, as stated, 
for us now one of fact. Do we see anyone rejecting with 
inward rebellion what he imposes on himself? If we do, 
then one may coerce himself. The cases that seem most 
like this may, however, upon reflection, turn out to be 
examples of the coercion of circumstances rather than of 
one’s self. The question thus becomes rather academic 
than useful.” 

“Well, may we not go on to something interesting? 
When you people begin splitting hairs, you never know 


COERCION AND LEARNING 79 


when to stop. It gets very tiresome to the rest of us. 
Are we never to take up the effect of coercion on 
learning? ”’ 

“Tt is too bad to spend so much time on what may 
seem unnecessary. We are, however, now ready to go on 
with our topic. Shall we take an illustration and follow it 
through with the same steps we used at the outset?”’ 

“By all means. An illustration always helps.”’ 

“Suppose, then—John has lately been so much interested 
in football that he has slighted his lessons. At length the 
teacher in desperation tells him that he must 
stay away from practice that afternoon and 
work on some problems he has repeatedly 
missed. As soon as he can do the work, he may go. To 
make a clear case, suppose John feels rebellious the whole 
time, but doesn’t dare actually to rebel. Our problem, 
then, is to find out what kind of learning will go on, and 
how it will take place.’ 

“Shall we take into account only the learning of the 
problems, or shall we consider all the learning that takes 
place? I mean, shall we ask about all the simultaneous 
attendant learnings that we discussed before [Chapter I]?”’ 

“FEventually we must take account of all, because they 
are all taking place, but for our immediate purposes let’s 
begin with the problem solving.”’ 

‘‘Well, if the boy is going to be rebellious the whole time, 
he won’t learn much. Anybody knows that. I don’t need 
to study psychology or pedagogy or pedaguese or anything 
else to tell me that. Why don’t you ask something that 
people want to know?”’ 

“Ves we went over the same point earlier in connection 
with learning through interest. The main results in the 
clear cases may already be known, but if we can find out 
how the rebellious attitude works to prevent the learning, 


An instance 
of coercion 


80 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


we have learned something new. Perhaps then we’ll know 
better how to manage rebellious cases. Shall we go on?” 

‘Yes, for gracious’ sake, do.” 

‘Well, consider John. He stays because he’s afraid not 
to stay, and he studies at least after a fashion. Is there 
any mind-set?”’ 

“Certainly, he is dead set against the whole performance 
and, as you said, this contrary set continues 
throughout.” 

“Ts that all? Is there any other mind-set? 
Remember, he can get out with the other boys only if he 
will convince the teacher that he can work the problems. 
Does this mean anything?” 

“Yes, it probably means that he will try to convince the 
teacher, and so will study the problems.” 

‘Then he will have a mind-set for the problems?” 

‘“To a degree, yes; but he may try to convince the teacher 
by some kind of bluff or, it may be, even by cheating. But 
whatever the means he adopts for convincing the teacher, 
he will have at least some temporary mind-set for that.” 

“Why do you say that his mind-set for the study or for 
the cheating, as the case may be, will be temporary?” 

“Because he is really intent on getting to the football 
practice. That’s the end for him. The study and fooling 
the teacher are only means. For the football he has what 
we called an inner urge. For what he does to convince the 
teacher there is only an outer urge.”’ 

‘‘What is the effect of the rebelliousness?”’ 

“It acts, as it were, on the side of the football urge. The 
two work together. They are almost parts of the same 
thing.” 

“Yes, I see that, but what is the effect of the rebellious 
spirit on these temporary sets? Doesn’t the feeling of 
opposition keep him from trying to persuade the teacher?” 


Opposed 
mind-sets 


COERCION AND LEARNING 81 


“T don’t think so. I was wondering if this rebellious 
feeling of opposition doesn’t work against the boy’s study- 
ing, but in favor of his fooling the teacher.” 

“T believe you are right. The teacher undertakes to 
force the boy to study. To get ahead of the teacher and 
so get out of study would afford an outlet for the boy’s 
spirit of opposition. Yes, the rebelliousness works against 
study and for getting ahead of the teacher.”’ 

‘But suppose the boy is in the end forced to study. Is 
there or is there not any set for the problem solving?” 

‘‘Let’s see. Suppose one of the problems involves a long 
subtraction. Will the boy remember throughout that he is 
subtracting, or will he forget and either begin adding or 
have to go back and ascertain anew what he is trying 
to do?”’ 

“IT see what you mean. Certainly, if he is to solve the 
problem he must in some measure have a mind-set that puts 
his mind on it. In such case he probably would go ahead 
consistently in his subtraction.” 

‘But the contrary mind-set roused by the coercion would 
interfere with this mind-set, wouldn’t it?” 

“Yes, as a rule the contrary set would interfere to some 
extent with his attention to the arithmetic, at times so much 
so as to prevent anything but a very mechanical How the Gene 
sort of attention. In other cases there would trary mind-set 
be less interference. In still others, he might 4°S 
really give pretty good attention to the arithmetic.” 

“Would it not depend on the strength of the contrary set 
and on the degree of rebelliousness, as to how much inter- 
ference there would be?”’ 

“Exactly so.” 

“This discussion sounds very reasonable, but I thought 
we were to hear about the psychology of learning under coer- 
cion. You seem to have overlooked that.’’ 


82 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“‘Suppose we take the eight definite steps in purposeful 
learning under a strong favorable mind-set as given before 
[pages 70-71], and discuss the effect of coercion under those 
heads.” 

‘Very well. In that case we had a strong mind-set-to-an- 
end that favored, as you say, the learning. How is it here?” 


““We have here also a strong mind-set, but it is opposed 
to his staying in or to studying. We find also a certain 
temporary and relatively weak mind-set for the problems. 
The stronger the rebelliousness that attends the opposed 
mind-set, the weaker this mind-set for arithmetic is likely 
to be.” 

“What about (1) the ‘definite end in view’? ”’ 

‘There 1s one main end, to get to the football practice. 
There may be a kind of subordinate end, to solve the prob- 
In coercion lems; but there may be in place of this a plan 
there are op- of deceiving the teacher.”’ 
inns si ttt: ‘What about (2) the ‘inner urge’? ” 

‘The inner urge is to get to the football practice. There 
may be a derived and temporary inner urge to deceive or 
otherwise cheat the teacher, but any urge for the problems 
would in this case be typically outer. It will let up as soon 
as the external pressure is removed.” 

“What about (38-4) ‘readinesses and unreadinesses’?”’ 

‘Hach mind-set will have its own system of readinesses 
and unreadinesses; and these will greatly interfere with 
each other. So long as the contrary mind-set 
is acting — especially so long as the rebellious 
feeling is present —it will be psychologically 
impossible for the best arithmetical thinking to go on. 
The thoughts just won’t come with fullness and freedom. 
Under such circumstances it would be only relatively 
mechanical work that could result.’’ 

‘‘Won’t there be actual readiness for thwarting activities? 


Resulting 
unreadiness 


COERCION AND LEARNING 83 


Don’t pupils under such conditions actually take to a kind 
of sabotage, as they call it in labor discussions?” 

“There certainly is likely to arise readiness for thwarting 
activities, and sabotage is not an inapt term to describe 
many of them; but often an older and uglier word is even 
more apt.” 

“You mean cheating, I suppose, and you are certainly 
right. Many children under unwise management readily 
feel great ‘readiness for thwarting activities.’ In answer 
to such readiness, children hitherto and other- 
wise good may find a natural if unholy satis- 
faction in ‘beating’ the teacher?”’ | 

‘Yes, here as elsewhere the Law of Readiness holds: 
‘Where a bond is ready to act, to act gives satisfaction.’ ” 

‘And does this satisfaction fix the cheating habit in these 
children?” 

“Yes, unless there is some counteracting annoyance. 
Only we mustn’t say they will surely cheat under all other 
conditions. The rule of no general automatic transfer holds 
here as well as elsewhere.”’ 

“And what about (5) ‘hindrances spurring to greater 
efforts’ ?”’ 

“So far as studying the arithmetic is concerned, exactly 
the opposite will hold. As with all ‘outer urges’ each new 
difficulty is a new suggestion to stop, to cease efforts. No, 
where one works under coercion a difficulty encountered in 
a problem will not as a rule spur to greater efforts at 
problem solving. Just the contrary will generally happen.”’ 

“And (6) what is success for this boy?” 

“Tt all depends on the ends set up. The 
main success, if success there be, will be get- 
ting out with the other boys. There may be the subsidiary 
success in his efforts at cheating, or the milder success at 
the problem solving.” 


Tendency to 
deception 


Ambiguous 
success 


84 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘And what about (7) the satisfaction that attends suc- 
cess?”’ 

‘‘Each success carries its own satisfaction, the amount 
of which depends on the strength of the corresponding 
mind-set. If the boy can beat the teacher, considerable 
satisfaction ensues; he has escaped and he did it by his own 
contrivance. If he solves the problems and so gets out, the 
main satisfaction may still be in getting out. The satisfac- 
tion in the problem solving as such is lessened in the degree 
that he has felt resentfully that his work has been under 
compulsion.” 

‘‘What, then, shall we conclude about (8) the learning 
that results from coercion?” 

‘‘First, in so far as the opposed mind-set begets unreadi- 
ness for the problem solving, in that degree the necessary 
Conrriontnies thoughts are unlikely to arise. There is then 
less promise danger that psychologically he will be unable 
Ch euCeres to do a good job of thinking. In other words, 
his chances of successful solution (as the teacher counts 
success) are lessened in the degree that the boy feels opposi- 
tion and rebellion. 

‘‘Second, the satisfaction that results from successful 
problem solving (supposing he does succeed) is probably the 
smaller, both on account of the lack of readiness 
for the necessary effort because of his opposition 
to the coercion, and also by reason of the over- 
shadowing feeling of satisfaction that he has at length 
escaped coercion. 

“Third, since the satisfaction is small there is small 
learning. The Law of Effect must play its part. There 
may even have been built up a growing distaste 
for the whole subject of mathematics. If so, — 
this is merely the negative side of the same law.” 

‘“‘Tyo you mean that the annoyance of the whole proceed- 


Less satis- 
faction 


Less learning 


COERCION AND LEARNING 85 


ing may disgust him with mathematics? It isn’t the mathe- 
matics that is at fault, it is his own previous idleness or lack 
of attention to duty. Won’t the annoyance thus 
serve to keep him from being idle again? Why 
do you pick out the mathematics to suffer?” 

“Tt all depends upon the boy’s own reaction. If he lays 
the blame on his idleness, he will less likely be idle the next 
time. If he blames the teacher and the dryness of mathe- 
matics, then he may build an aversion to both. Which he 
will probably blame, you know as well as I; but the Law of 
Effect will work in any case.” 

‘Do you conclude that coercion has no place in 
school?” | 

‘No, I wouldn’t say that. I think it has a place. But I 
would say that if my coercion of children is of such kind as 
to arouse a strong feeling of active resentment, 
then I need not expect much useful learning to 
result directly; and there are other possible 
results to be positively feared. If at any particular time I 
wish children to learn, I must at that time either avoid 
coercion or I must so use it as not to arouse the contrary 
set that spoiled, as we have just seen, the most of John’s 
learning.” 

‘But haven’t we heard of children who practised piano 
playing under coercion and later came to love their playing? 
What about them? And what about holding up standards? 
Isn’t that necessary, and isn’t it coercion?” 

“That’s a good question about the piano playing. I have 
heard people argue much about it, but they never reached 
a satisfactory conclusion because they had no way to settle 
the issue. I hope we shall be more successful.” 

“T’ve just come in. I wish you would tell me what 
you have been saying so that I may go on with the 
discussion.” 


Aversion 
may result 


The place 
of coercion 


86 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“T am glad to sum it up if the others don’t mind. We 
have been discussing coercion and its effect on learning. We 
ae a A agreed by a kind of definition that the presence 
the effect of an aroused contrary mind-set is the essential 
ofcoercion =» factor in what we call coercion. The normal 
and legitimate effect of such a contrary mind-set we con- 
cluded is to bring unreadiness for the coerced action and to 
lessen — in any event — the satisfaction accompanying the 
successful completion of this action. This unreadiness and 
accompanying lessened satisfaction would mean, by the 
psychological Law of Effect, less of learning in connection 
with the coerced activity. From this we further concluded 
that if we wish a child to learn best we should as far as is 
feasible avoid arousing the contrary mind-set.” 

“TIsn’t it inevitable that if you force anything on another 
you do arouse opposition, and isn’t this feeling of opposition 
just what you mean by a contrary mind-set? If this is so, 
then doesn’t coercion, however you define it, necessarily 
prevent learning? How can one ever learn to play the piano 
through compulsion, still less learn to like it?” 

‘‘Not so fast. You are ignoring certain necessary qualifi- 
cations to your statements. The typical result of forcing 
Coercion does COnduct upon another is, true enough, to arouse 
not prevent opposition; but there are many possible degrees 
all learning = of such opposition. Some degrees of opposition 
are so weak as hardly to mean a contrary mind-set. More 
to the point, however, we never have said that an opposed 
mind-set destroys or prevents all learning in connection. On 
the contrary, human responses are always mixed. We 
pointed out explicitly in the case of the boy kept after school 
to work his problems that he had at least two mind-sets, one 
of opposition to the teacher, the other, much weaker as a 
rule but still present, to solve the problems. When he suc- 
ceeds in solving the problems he feels some satisfaction. 


COERCION AND LEARNING 87 


This satisfaction may come from either of two sources. He 
feels satisfaction first at getting out. The more exclusively 
his satisfaction as he finishes is centered consciously on get- 
ting out, the less, in probability, does his success fix any 
mathematics in his mind. The second satisfaction arises 
from the success attending his efforts with the mathematics. 
He may, it is true, have felt his resentment and opposition 
so keenly that he wouldn’t even try to solve the problems. 
If so, the result is no effort and therefore no chance for suc- 
cess or satisfaction, and consequently no possible learning of 
the arithmetic. But if he did try at all and did make any 
sort of success, then there will be some satisfaction and 
consequently some learning.” 2 

“You do admit, then, that coercion can bring learn- 
ing?” 

“Certainly. We have all the time said that coercion might 
and usually would bring some learning. Our point has been 
that in so far as coercion arouses and maintains a contrary 
mind-set, it tends to reduce and lessen the learning we 
wish.”’ 

‘Then coercion is merely a poor way to get things 
learned?”’ 

“Tt is that, true enough, but it may be worse than that. 
We have in this whole discussion been ignoring all those 
accompanying learnings we discussed in our 
first meeting [Chapter I]. In any actual case 
before us they have to be considered. Coercion 
may teach on the side, as it were, many undesirable things. 
For instance, many boys who have been badly managed in 
school conceive such a distaste for school that they leave it 
as soon as the law allows, to the hurt both of their own 
future and of society at large.” 

“This question seems to me to grow as we work on it. I 
had no idea it was so complicated.” 


Coercion and 
concomitants 


88 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Ves it is becoming complicated. I fear we shall have 
to wait till the next time to finish.” 

“May we not begin then with the piano playing? I am 
very much interested in that.”’ 

‘Indeed, yes, if you all so wish.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 
See references at the end of Chapter V (page 73). 


CHAPTER VII 
COERCION AND LEARNING — Concluded 


“Will coercion bring success in the teaching of piano 
playing? That’s where we are to begin, is it not?” 

‘Yes, that’s what we agreed to.” 

“Then, let me tell how it strikes me. I have been thinking 
a great deal about it. I think I now see how a girl may 
learn to play from compulsory practice on the piano Ravine 
piano. Isn’t it just like the boy kept in after under 
school — the girl will as a rule give at least coercion 
some attention to her practice, and if she succeeds even a 
little she will have some satisfaction arising from her 
success. So she will learn at least a little.’ 

“Yes, that is exactly the case. Of course the more she 
puts her soul into what she does, the more likely she is, first 
of all, to succeed, and also the greater will be her satisfaction 
in what she accomplishes, and consequently the better will 
be her learning.” 

“T find myself confused a little just here. I thought the 
question was not whether the girl will learn to play a piece 
from enforced practice. That I never doubted. The ques- 
tion I asked the last time was whether the coercion, if per- 
sisted in by the mother, wouldn’t result in a fondness for 
piano playing in the girl. And if this is so, it seems to contra- 
dict your analysis.”’ 

‘You mean, then, to ask whether coercion can create a 
fondness. And if so, how can we reconcile this with the effect 
of annoyance, which would be expected to create an aver- 
sion?”’ 

89 


90 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘Yes, or you might put it, ‘Can coercion build an interest?’ 
I should certainly expect from your line of argument that 
an aversion and not a fondness would result.” 

‘What are the observed facts? Does coercion build fond- 
ness or aversion?”’ 

“T think I can answer that. Of course I haven’t kept any 
statistics; but my experience as a music teacher through a 
good many years is this: if a girl has talent and if she is 
started right so that she feels herself succeeding, she will 
learn rapidly. If she does learn rapidly and keeps on grow- 
ing in her music and if people praise her playing, she will 
grow more and more fond of her music. But if she has no 
talent, she won’t learn very rapidly and will easily get dis- 
couraged. Then when people don’t praise her playing, she 
will begin to look for praise and satisfaction along other 
lines. For such a girl, a strong fondness for the piano will 
seldom, if ever, develop.” 

“But you said nothing about coercion and its effect.”’ 

“TY don’t think much about that with my pupils. It may 
help or it may hurt.” 

‘‘T wonder if we haven’t now the essential facts before us. 
If a girl has no talent for playing she will sooner or later 
When ce find it out. If she doesn’t play very well and 
ercion can is normally sensitive to what people say, she 
help will gradually leave off playing for others. In 
such ease the coercion couldn’t help, it might hurt. If a girl 
has talent but doesn’t know it, a certain amount of coercion 
— skillfully applied — may overcome an initial objection 
to practising until her success, which is probable from her 
talent, brings satisfaction enough to build a fondness. In 
such cases the coercion may help.’ 

“Why say ‘may help’? Why not say ‘does help’?” 

‘Possibly you are right, but I must believe in every case 
that so far as the child feels the coercion to be coercion, the 


COERCION AND LEARNING 91 


desired learning is lessened. I admit the need for getting 
the child to put forth the necessary initial effort, but I can 
not admit that coercion is always the best way to secure this 
needed effort. kemember that coercion naturally lessens 
both the chance of success and the accompanying learning. 
Perhaps some other way than coercion might arouse the 
effort without at the same time incurring the hurtful effect 
almost bound to follow in some measure from coercion. In 
other words, as a teaching device, coercion is always in 
some measure an evil. In a particular case it may be the 
best available instrument. If so, use it. But know all the 
time that it carries with it evil possibilities.” 

‘Do you refer, in speaking of ‘evil possibilities,’ merely 
to the lessened learning or to the bad attendant learn- 
ing?”’ 

“To both. We can never lose sight of either. If we decide 
to use coercion in any particular case, we must decide only 
after a full survey of all the probable results.”’ 

‘You do admit, however, that coercion does sometimes 
build an interest.” 

“IT must admit it. The facts as well as my own theory 
demand it as a possibility.”’ 

“Would you mind recapitulating your position on this 
point?”’ 

“T am glad to do so. Building interests is perhaps as 
important a work as education can undertake. Whether it 
is feasible to build an interest along any given line depends 
first of all on the native capacities of the person.”’ 

“May I interrupt you? Do you refer here exclusively to . 
some specific talent, such as a talent for music?” 

‘No, although some pronounced capacity or talent may 
be the dominating factor. I mean, however, to include 
other instances where the activity involved includes many 
different satisfactions as, for example, what we popularly 


92 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


call ‘manipulation,’ ‘inventiveness,’ ‘social approval,’ and 
the like.”’ 

‘‘Haven’t you now so broadened your conception as to 
take in all conceivable activities?” 

‘Yes and no. There is practically no activity to be shut 
out entirely. The Hindu fakir who daily tortures his body 
has actually built up in himself this repulsive practice as 
an interest.”’ 

‘‘It may be an aside, but would you mind saying a further 
word about building interests? I mean without special 
reference to coercion. If I correctly understand you, there 
are first some necessary prerequisites and then an appro- 
priate procedure.” 

‘“‘I myself reckon two necessary prerequisites for an abid- 
ing interest: first, enough capacity for the activities involved 
Prorequintes 100 bring continued satisfaction from success; 
for building and second, a growing activity. The first may 
aninterest refer more specifically to one dominant talent, 
as for mathematics or music, or it may contemplate only a 
combination of more ordinary powers. But there must be 
the possibility of continued satisfaction from the success- 
ful exercise of the activity. The second prerequisite, that 
of the quality of growing, it seems, is not equally necessary 
for all people; but on the whole the interest will not be 
abidingly gripping unless it continually faces at least some 
element of novelty.” 

‘These I understand to be the prerequisites. Now what 

about the procedure?” 
Thee “The essential of the procedure is our old 
Hea es Law of Effect, ‘Practice with satisfaction.’ We 
building an = =must somehow get vigorous action along the 
hea desired line and of a kind that brings a high 
degree of satisfaction. Suppose we say it in tabular 
fashion: 


COERCION AND LEARNING 93 


1. Get the activity going with zest — if possible in the face 

of obstacles that challenge all but the last reserves of power. 

See that success attends. 

3. If possible, let there be approval from those whose approval 
is valued. 


~ 


If the two prerequisites have been met and this procedure 
can be followed, I believe you will with practical certainty 
see an interest growing.” 

‘You seem to think that overcoming hindrances is a help 
to interest. Isn’t that contrary to general opinion?”’ 

‘Perhaps so, but I am sure of my ground. Granted an 
initial mind-set in that direction, there are, as Woodworth 
has pointed out,! few things so interesting as 
overcoming a difficulty that calls for all but the 
last ounce of available energy. Of course if 
difficulties of this sort keep on confronting us, we have to 
be sustained by a belief that the end is worthy of the effort. 
Approval of others helps just here; it steadies our faith in 
the end.” 

“What do you mean by an interest when you speak of 
building an interest? Your last remark seems to me to imply 
the presence of interest, but not of an interest, ; 
as I understand the term. Interest is there, is nes 
but it seems to be fleeting, found only in over- 
coming and the like. I thought you were to build up a per- 
manent interest in some end that would supply interest to 
the necessary means.” 

‘“Your distinction is well made and properly made. We 
do contemplate building an interest that will carry its own 
drive. Unless it results that the end in view, or the working 
with and toward the end, carries its own drive, arouses an 
inner urge, is desired for its own sake — unless these things 
happen, no interest has been built. Now what I mean is 

1 Dynamic Psychology, p. 102. 


Overcoming 
hindrances 


94 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


this: If one does put heart and soul with very great endeavor 
into working for some end, especially for some difficult 
end; if one sees himself succeeding, if one hears meanwhile 
the plaudits of those whose praise counts with him — then 
not only is there interest in overcoming and in being ap- 
proved, but you may be reasonably sure that an interest will 
in time be built which will of its own pull carry the person 
on without plaudits, perhaps even against jeers, without 
even present signs of success, but with many and varied 
efforts in a real struggle to achieve the end that is called for 
by the interest. Such an interest becomes as it were an 
intrinsic source of effort, capable of lending interest to aux- 
iliary causes.”’ 

“From this discussion on building interests I see now more 
clearly than before how coercion fails. But couldn’t we go 
Virtues further? Wouldn’t these two discussions have 
as moral important bearings in the field of moral educa- 
interests tion?” 

“Just what do you have in mind?” 

‘Are we not, in the realm of morals, mainly concerned 
with building what might be called moral interests? For 
example, with building up in the child interests in honesty 
and fair play and consideration of others? If I understand 
rightly, honesty is indeed the best policy, but the man who 
acts honestly merely from policy is not really honest. Do 
we not wish to make him love honesty for its own sake, and 
isn’t this substantially the same thing as the interest you 
have just described?” 

“Yes. We wish these moral virtues and other social inter- 
ests enthroned in the hearts of each one so that they are, so 
far as one’s feelings at the time go, their own justification 
for being. Of course we wish more than this by way of 
understanding the why of them and more in the way of loving 
our fellow men and so on; but you are exactly right as to 


COERCION AND LEARNING 95 


their psychological character. They are interests to be built 
in the hearts of the young.” 

‘‘And would the same procedure hold for these as for the 
others?” 

‘Yes, so far as these are interests, they are to be built in 
the same way. But some of them are broad generalized ideas 
and would accordingly demand first the procedure necessary 
for making such generalizations. That, of course, is another 
story.” 

“Would the same limitations on coercion hold in building 
these interests as hold, say, in building a fondness for piano 
playing?”’ » 

‘Yes, and perhaps in effect even more strongly. In 
piano playing we have the possibility that great natural 
capacity for music may bring success in spite of the lessened 
efforts due to the coercion. In this way we have the possi- 
bility that the opposed mind-set will disappear under these 
favorable conditions and an interest accordingly come to 
be built. There are even good grounds for supposing that 
strong native capacity and initial interest are usually 
found together. The coercion might in such cases serve 
to cut off rival activities. The native ability would do 
the rest.” 

“Might not the same thing hold in the realm of morals? 
Are there not born moral geniuses, just as there are born 
musical geniuses? I fail to see why the same discussion 
would not hold unchanged.”’ 

“It would probably hold unchanged if we were content 
to have as many people incompetent in morals as in music. 
We are for the most part willing — indeed more than willing 
— to leave the making of music to the gifted few. But every- 
body needs morals, especially —as the humorist said — 
does the other fellow. So we must try to build moral inter- 
ests often in mediocre native ability.” 


96 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“You mean then that we may use coercion in morals 
where we don’t in music?”’ 

‘‘No. Coercion is just as hurtful in one as in the other. 
We saw that coercion, if skillfully managed, might in music 
cut off thwarting interests and give the natural interests a 
chance to develop. In the same way, skillfully applied, it 
may help in morals, but we must remember that morals 
must be built even where there is no pronounced moral 
capacity to help us.” 

“T wish you would illustrate this. I don’t quite follow all 
you have said.” 

“Suppose at home some evening the younger children per- _ 
sist in making so much noise that the older children cannot 

study and their parents cannot read. What 
panei should we do and why?” 

“That’s easy. I’d tell them to stop. If 
they didn’t I’d send them to bed. Coercion or not, I cer- 
tainly would not allow any of my children to ruin everybody 
else’s happiness, and I’d do it for their own good as well. 
Spoiling children does what the word says; it ‘spoils’ them.” 

“Well, that is what most people would do and for the 
same reasons. But let’s examine the matter a little. There 
are several ways of sizing up this situation. We may con- 
sider the rights of the parents and the older children to rea- 
sonable quiet and the attitudes of the younger children 
toward these rights. So stated, we have an educational situa- 
tion strongly suggested. The younger children either don’t 
understand or don’t appreciate or won’t respect the rights 
of the others. Each of these failures is a matter within the 
realm of education. A diagnosis should accordingly be made 
to locate the exact defects, and the proper educational pro- | 
cedure should be followed to correct them. Am I right?” 

‘You may be right, but you haven’t told us what to do. 
Would you punish the children or not?’ 


COERCION AND LEARNING of. 


“Certainly not until I had made an educational diagnosis 
and not then unless I could see in reason that the proposed 
punishment promised to supply the needed educational 
stimulation called for in their particular cases.”’ 

“Don’t you believe wrongdoing must be punished?” 

‘‘As you ask it, no. The sole reason the parent can 
properly have for punishing a child is the foreseen educative 
effect that is to follow.” 

‘What about spoiling a child? Isn’t it a real danger?” 

“Yes, but it is brought about by bad education. I un- 
derstand a spoiled child to be one who thinks his wish fur- 
nishes sufficient grounds for getting what he pgucational 
wishes, and who is moreover disposed to make diagnosis and 
things uncomfortable for others till he gets it. Teen 
Now both of these attitudes can come in only one way: he 
has tried them with such uniform success that they have 
been fixed in him. They can be removed only by reversing 
the process. He must learn by the action of satisfaction and 
annoyance that his wish is not sufficient, that others have 
rights which he must take into account, and that making 
himself a nuisance is not a socially satisfactory way to secure 
ends. It may take time and patience on the part of his 
elders for him to learn these things, but there is no other 
course available.” 

‘And what is the psychology of the procedure?”’ 

“There are two possible ways of procedure: one is to 
attach annoyance to the children’s wrong behavior, the other 
is to see that satisfaction attends the right. Of course both 
at times may be combined.” 

‘You refer in the first to the use of punishment?” 

‘““Yes, and it is best available when the annoyance will be 
attached uniquely to the wrongdoing. Otherwise there is 
danger that wrong aversions may be built up, perhaps to 
the mother for interfering, or to the home as a place where 
unpleasant things happen, or to the older sister for com- 


98 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


plaining, or to duty as a disagreeable word that figures 
Punishment Whenever pleasures are curtailed. It is this 
and itslimi- uncertain effect of punishment, and indeed of 
une all coercion, that makes it so unreliable an 
agency for moral betterment. If the attendant annoyance 
happens to be misplaced, mis-education takes place.” 

“The second possible procedure then is more satisfactory?” 

‘““It promises better in every way, though it is less easy 
for the unthinking to apply than the ‘Shut-up-or-be-sent-to- 
bed’ procedure.”’ 

‘‘Do you recognize any proper place for coercion other 
than those already mentioned?”’ 

““We didn’t say explicitly, I believe, that coercion may 
at times be properly used to prevent the exercise of certain 
undesirable practices and consequently prevent the forma- 
tion of undesirable habits. But even here a positive régime 
of building good interests instead is, if feasible, far more 
desirable.’’ 

‘‘ Are there then no other uses for coercion — none what- 
ever?” 

‘““Oh, yes. Coercion may properly be used as an emergency 
measure to prevent damage to one’s self or to others or to 
valuable property. In themselves these are not educational 
measures, though we can never forget that they have edu- 
cative effects, usually mixed, some bad and some good.” 

““You seem then to count coercion always as an evil, but 
sometimes as the least of the evils confronting one.” 

The lcone ‘fT think it has always attendant evils. Fre- 
clusion quently, perhaps usually, these evils outweigh 
its good. Sometimes the reverse is true. The constant use 
of coercion, however, is a sign of bad teaching somewhere.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Woopworts — Dynamic Psychology, pp. 200 ff. 
See also references at the end of Chapter V (page 73). 


CHAPTER VIII 
THe Wiper PRoBLeEM or Meruop 


“Would not the psychology we have recently been 
studying affect the simultaneous learnings we discussed the 
first time we came together? I mean psy- 
chological set and readiness. We have dis- ae Lee bectae 
cussed how these influence ordinary ‘main-line’ taneous 
learning, so to speak; but I should think readi- aaa 
ness and the like would make a great difference in the simul- 
taneous ‘side-line’ learnings.”’ 

“IT am glad you have brought this up. The wider 
problem of method has greatly impressed me from the 
time we first discussed it. I have been thinking about it 
ever since.” 

“T too have often thought of how we inevitably face the 
wider problem of method every time we face a class. Ina 
particular instance I might wish to think , 

; : ; The impor- 
mainly of arithmetic, for example, but more tance of the 
than arithmetic is going on — inevitably going Wider problem 
on — and I am responsible for all. Inevitable, rer 
responsible — these are sobering words to me. I wish I 
knew better how to meet the responsibility.” 

“And the importance of the attitudes that are being 
built! Just think that to these children the attitudes they 
are building toward life in its various aspects probably 
mean more for their future than anything else they learn; 
and we are in good part responsible for these attitudes.” 

‘“What do you mean by saying that the children’s atti- 


tudes mean so much for their future?”’ 
99 


100 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“TI mean that what anyone does, or perhaps better, tries 
to do, depends on the attitudes one has built. Perhaps I 
am just telling what J mean by attitude, but 
ne satan to me my attitude toward anything is what 
I customarily think about that thing and how 
I am customarily inclined to behave towards that thing. 
My attitude toward my friend includes what I customarily 
think when I think about my friend and what I am cus- 
tomarily inclined to do when the time comes to act in rela- 
tion to him or her. The patriot’s attitude toward his 
country is different from the traitor’s, partly in what he 
thinks, partly in what he does; but each has his habitual 
way of thinking about and acting towards his country and 
his country’s good.” 

‘From what you say, attitudes come pretty near to 
being the stuff of which character is built.” 

“That’s just it, and I mean then that we are helping these 
children to build characters each day and all the time. And 
Characterjs the building is inevitable. The children must 
being built | and do build attitudes of one sort or the other, 
all the time —_ favorable attitudes toward, or unfavorable atti- 
tudes against. It can’t be avoided. It goes on all the time. 
They are all the time building attitudes in regard to sub- 
ject, school, teacher, themselves, ways of going about 
things. That they build attitudes is inevitable; but what 
kind do they build? That is where our responsibility 
comes in.” 

‘And is this what you mean by the wider problem of 
method? I wasn’t here when you talked about that.’ 

: “Yes, in good part at least. The wider 

The wider ; 
problem of | problem of method is how to manage myself, 
Bey manage the schoolroom, the children, every- 
thing concerned, so that the children shall 

grow most and best from it all.” 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 101 


‘‘And the emphasis here is on all the learnings combined 
as a whole?”’ 

‘Yes, whether we like it or not, or know it or not, all the 
learnings will come together. We are responsible for the 
aggregate, for the combination.”’ 

“That’s why you call it the ‘wider problem,’ is it 
not?” 

“Yes, the ‘narrow problem’ concerns itself with any one 
or more of the details taken separately; the ‘wider problem’ 
considers the aggregate, the whole.” 

“One thing that struck me before in our discussion is 
that in such things as attitudes we are dealing with things 
that we cannot assign as tasks. I mean we .. 
cannot say that the children must get this or ae caesii 
that kind or degree of attitude or else we’l] cannot be 

y y Cagis assigned 
punish them. Imagine a scale of appreciation 
of good literature and our saying to the poorer pupils, 
‘Some of you children are behind in your appreciation of the 
“Psalm of Life.’”? Those who do not measure up to Unit 14 
on the Jones Scale must stay in every afternoon till they 
have caught up.’ That plan wouldn’t work.” 

“IT am not sure how well it ever worked even with as- 
signed spelling or arithmetic, but it certainly sounds absurd 
when you apply it to appreciation of literature. No, it 
wouldn’t work. There are some things that cannot be 
assigned under penalty for failure to learn. It looks on the 
face of it as if this were true of all attitudes.” 

‘And if life’s decisions spring largely from one’s attitudes, 
attitude building is then about the most important part of 
education. Isn’t it?” 

‘“‘T see no way out of it.” 

— “Doesn’t it seem odd, then — wrong, I mean— to try to 
run our schools on a plan that cannot take care of what is 
probably the most important part of education?” 


102 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘Do you mean that we are trying to run our schools 

on the assignment-testing-penalty basis?” 
‘Yes, I think that till recently this has been 
Our schools eh Ae 
too largely the prevailing notion in our country and through- 
ignore out the world; and probably it is still the posi- 
attitudes : ; ; : ; 
tion assumed in most curriculum discussions.” 

“Tt is wrong, it must be wrong, to ignore the building 
of attitudes, and we must change our management of chil- 
dren. Our schools must be changed. I think already I 
see many signs of the change coming. Probably, however, 
most people haven’t seen it yet. I know I had never 
realized what it meant till we began to talk about it.” 

“Don’t you think if we had some good names to use— 
terms, I suppose our more pedantic friends would call them 
—it would be easier to get people to see the true situation?”’ 

‘Yes, and I have some to propose. I heard them at 
summer school last summer. The terms as I got them 
Fe ip were ‘primary,’ ‘associate,’ and ‘concomitant.’ 
desobintetand Mi ML eww OLd ‘primary’ was used to refer to 
concomitant all the learning that belongs closely to the enter- 
learnings Bere y : : 

prise immediately under consideration: If I am 
making a dress, then the primary learning includes all the 
learning that comes from the actual making, such as in- 
creased skill in planning and cutting. 

“The term ‘associate’ is usually found in the phrase 
‘associate suggestions,’ and refers to all those allied thoughts 
or ideas that come from working on the dress, but which, 
if followed up then, would lead me away from my dress- 
making. I may thus be thinking whether the dress will 
wash, and so think about the dye used, and ask myself 
how such dyes are prepared. This in its place is a valuable 
and proper question, but I do not need to answer it in 
order to make this dress, and if I do try to answer it, I 
must for the time lay aside my dressmaking. 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 103 


“The ‘concomitant’ learnings grow (in part at least) out 
of the dressmaking, but do not belong so closely or ex- 
clusively to the dress as do the primary. I may thus say, 
‘I see it pays to be careful.’ I learned this, perhaps in 
connection with making the dress, but it may and should 
remain with me as an ideal that will reach beyond dress- 
making. In general we may say that the concomitant 
learnings have to do with the more generalized ideals and 
attitudes, while the primary learning has rather to do with 
specific knowledges and skills. The concomitant is, typi- 
cally, of slower growth, requiring perhaps many successive 
experiences to fix it permanently in one’s character. Prom- 
inent among concomitants are personal attitudes, attitudes 
toward one’s teachers or comrades, attitudes toward the 
several subjects of study (as geography or history), atti- 
tudes toward one’s self, such as self-reliance or pride or 
humility. Other important concomitants are standards of 
workmanship and the like, neatness, accuracy, or the 
reverse.”’ 

“I see what you mean, but why must you introduce more 
‘terms,’ as you call them? If you people who study and 
read books would only learn to use everyday words, you’d 
be much more popular and do much more good. And 
why do you choose such outlandish words for your terms? 
Who ever uses such a word as ‘concomitant’? Why don’t 
you choose a short word? But I didn’t mean to offend 
you.” 

“You didn’t really offend me. I suppose it was another 
case of ‘pride going before a fall.’ I was proud of myself 
that I had made my meaning clear, for I con- 
fess I had trouble last summer in getting the 
idea. And you are in good company in wishing 
for simpler terms, for I remember the professor said that 
he felt he ought to apologize for such long words and he 


The use 
of terms 


104 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


asked us to suggest shorter ones, only we couldn’t. But 
you, in my judgment, are wrong in objecting to ‘terms.’ 
They help us to think. Why, ever since I got these 
distinctions I can see the things themselves more clearly. 
In fact I never really saw the things in my pupils until 
I got these distinguishing terms. A name, let me tell 
you, 1s the way to hold and spread an idea. When you 
talk about a thing and give it its proper name, you 
yourself have something to hold to, while other people 
begin to ask what is meant and to look for the thing 
back of the name. Without terms there would be little 
exact thinking.’ 

‘‘I suppose you are right. It sounds reasonable. At 
any rate, I can’t argue against you. But I wish you would 
explain how you actually use these terms ‘primary,’ ‘asso- 
ciate,’ and ‘concomitant.’ ” 

‘Principally they make me critical of my work. I mean 
they help direct my self-criticism. I used to be content if 
The use of ™yY pupils didn’t miss in daily recitation work 
the designa- and could pass on the term examinations. I 
tive terms = thought that was all. Now I know better. 
That was being satisfied with the primary only. I never 
thought about the associate suggestions, and but little of 
what I now call concomitants. It is not that I do not 
value the primary now; I do value it, perhaps just as 
much as before, only differently, more intelligently, I 
believe. But I think a great deal more about the other 
two. 

“Besides, I used to be impatient if my children asked 
questions suggested by the lesson but not on the lesson. 
Using You see my eyes were glued on the course of 
associate study, and I thought of these questions only 
suggestions as evidence of mind wandering. I still am 
troubled to keep the class sufficiently intent on the matter 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 105 


at hand, but I feel differently about the outside questions 
and I act differently. Now I feel that my pupils and I 
are really succeeding when these associated suggestions arise. 
Properly used, they mean growth. We don’t yield to the 
present inclination to follow them up, but we do notice 
them enough to see whither they invite us. Sometimes 
we write them down for future use. And I see that a dif- 
ferent attitude is already growing up in the class. The chil- 
dren are more thoughtful. Associated suggestions noted in 
the past come up again in their right places, and James or 
Mary is proud to have foreseen the point. They feel dif- 
ferently toward me too. We seem to be working more 
sympathetically, and we really enjoy thinking things out 
together and connecting them all properly. I find that I 
respect my pupils more; and, really, the advance connec- 
tions they see are remarkable. My pupils think more 
connectedly now, instead of less connectedly as I feared. 
Their organization is much better. You see I was before- 
times repressing rather than encouraging their natural 
inclinations to think. 

“And as for the concomitants, I am now much concerned 
about them, particularly as to what attitudes are being 
built and how I can help forward the better 
ones. I see now that I always valued those 
things, the ideals and attitudes of my pupils: 
but I didn’t concern myself consciously and specifically 
about them. I somehow trusted to luck about them. 
The pupils who were going to have good ideals were going 
to have them, and that was all there was about it. I 
scolded sometimes and I criticized a good deal, but I now 
think that in so doing I did more harm than good. Now 
I know that each ideal and each attitude has a life-history 
of its own; each is built up just as truly as is any fact of 
knowledge or any skill.”’ 


Using con- 
comitants 


106 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“It seems to me that you are now contradicting yourself. 
Harlier you were speaking of these attitudes as being built 
Are attitudes incidentally. Now you talk as if you seek 
sought them directly. Which is right?” 
gurcuye “So far as the child is concerned they are 
principally built incidentally, that is, in connection with 
other purposes of his. I as teacher, however, must be 
conscious of what he is doing and steer his various activities 
so that the proper ideals and attitudes shall actually grow 
up. I consider them consciously; he achieves them — for 
the most part — indirectly. But at times we do talk mat- 
ters over, because clear consciousness is often an important 
factor in building ideals.” 

“‘T understand you now on that point, but I wish to ask 
further. Do you then judge each thing the children do 

under these three heads of primary, associate, 
Is each act ; 
to be judged and concomitant?”’ 
in these “Typically, yes. Each study period, each 
terms? Be ‘ + inion we 

recitation period, and each recess is in its own 
measure going to result in primary learning of some kind, 
well or ill done; in few or many, rich or poor, associated 
suggestions; In good or bad concomitants. As teacher, I 
am in some measure responsible, and in so far I must know 
what is going on and adequately appraise the results. In 
the light of the results — so far as I do or could influence 
them — am I to be judged.”’ 

“Isn’t it different now? If I understand you aright, 
we examine and promote almost if not entirely on the 
The primary Primary learning, and disregard the other two.” 
is now too “Yes, I think we do. You see we can test 
much stressed the primary learning so much more easily than 
we can the others. The new scientific tests and measures 
of achievement even reinforce the tendency to pay exclu- 
sive attention to the primary, because they are so far for 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 107 


the most part confined to the more mechanical skills and 
knowledges. I sometimes fear their first effect will be to 
fasten the merely mechanical side of school work even 
more firmly on our schools.”’ 

“Well, you certainly surprise me now. You have al- 
ways been eager for each new advance of science, as I 
have heard you say, and here you are decrying what you 
must admit is at least one of the most scientific steps yet 
taken in the study of education. I didn’t expect it of you.” 

‘The new tests are indeed a contribution of the very 
first value, but what I say is still true. So far as they 
measure achievement they are up to now 7, na oer 
largely confined to the more mechanical as- in the 
pects of learning. A superintendent gives a 2¢W tests 
series of tests in spelling, arithmetic, or reading. Sooner 
or later the teachers learn the records of their classes, and 
unless the superintendent is wise they will find themselves 
rated according to these records. If the superintendent 
could as satisfactorily measure the teacher’s success in 
building ideals and attitudes, so that all the educational 
outcomes could be weighed, the situation would be different. 
But as matters now stand the superintendent is in danger 
of taking the teacher’s attention away from the ‘imponder- 
ables,’ the ideals and attitudes and moral habits that can- 
not yet be measured in wholesale quantities, and of fasten- 
ing that attention upon a part only of the educational 
output and that the most mechanical.” 

“Don’t you think this a fanciful picture? Is there 
really any danger?”’ 

‘Indeed it is not a fanciful picture. The danger is very 
real. Such considerations as this make me look earnestly 
for the day when we shall be able to measure the whole 
gamut of achievement. I believe that day will come and a 
great day it will be. Till then, however, I should advise 


108 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


superintendents and supervisors to consider carefully how 
they use the tests. Let them use the tests, but with a 
clear sense of their limitations and dangers. In the mean- 
while there is the greater reason for urging attention to the 
wider problem of method. We must make everyone see the 
value of the concomitant learning and of the associate sug- 
gestions. Every recitation period, every school exercise, 
must be appraised under all three heads of primary, asso- 
ciate, and concomitant.”’ 

“Tf you made your*expression even stronger, I should 
not object. When I consider that while we are stressing 
THelercnter arithmetic, for example, our children are form- 
need to ing at the same time the very warp and woof 
study method of their moral characters, I shudder to think of 
the consequences if our teachers see only the arithmetic 
and ignore the life-attitudes being built. Fortunately, 
there is no necessary opposition between the two, rather the 
contrary; but nothing can excuse us for failing to consider 
those other outcomes that inevitably accompany every 
school activity.” 

“You seem to connect the wider problem of method in 
some peculiar sense with the problem of life. Am I right?” 

‘“Yes. The wider problem of method seems to me now 
to be almost the same as the moral problem of life itself. 

As I see it, our schools have in the past chosen 

Root ays from the whole of life certain intellectualistic 
method is tools (skills and knowledges), have arranged 
prepara these under the heads of reading, arithmetic, 
geography, and so on, and have taught these 

separately as if they would, when once acquired, recombine 
into the worthy life. This now seems to me to be very far 
from sufficient. Not only do these things not make up 
the whole of life; but we have so fixed attention upon the 
separate teaching of these as at times to starve the weightier 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 109 


matters of life and character. The only way to learn to 
live well is to practice living well. Our highly artificial 
study of arithmetic and geography and physics has too 
often meant that the child lived but meagerly in and 
through the school studies. The practice of living that has 
in fact counted most for him has often been what he and 
his like-starved fellows could contrive for themselves apart 
from their elders. Educative indeed has this been, but not 
always wisely so. There is no cause for wonder that 
American citizenship disappoints. Democracy demands a 
high type of character. Our schools have not risen to the 
demand upon them.”’ 

“Do you mean that the wider problem of method espe- 
cially concerns building for citizenship?”’ 

“That is exactly what I mean. It has always been so. 
Without clearly distinguishing what they did, or rather how 
the results have been attained, each long- 
abiding type or ideal of civilization has con- Peete ae 
trived its answer to this wider problem of has used its 
method in such fashion as to mold the type of Pes teap 
character correlatively needed to perpetuate 
itself. The Spartan and the Athenian of antiquity differed 
from each other quite as much by reason of different methods 
of education as because of the different contents of the 
curriculum. ‘The proverbial ‘hardening’ of the former was 
sign and result of the treatment accorded their youth. 
The slave of every age has by well-contrived processes been 
made lowly in spirit in order that he might the more con- 
tentedly bear his hard lot and lowly station. Civilizations 
have differed much as to whether the individual man should 
think for himself. Those opposed to such thinking have 
always contrived such methods of treating their young as 
early habituated them to acquiescence in the officially ap- 
proved opinions. Prussia, old China, Mahomet, the Jesu- 


110 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


its, the older military discipline, all represent various 
efforts along this line. These have differed among them- 
selves almost in toto as to the primary learning they have 
sought to inculcate; but they have been agreed markedly 
in the methods of inculcating the concomitants, the desired 
attitudes.”’ 

‘Does this have any lesson for this country?” 

“Indeed, yes. We in this country must study anew this 
problem of method in order the more adequately to devise 
To America the proper treatment of our young so as to fit 
its appropriate them for democratic citizenship. The begin- 
oes ning of this wisdom, I believe, is to recognize 
the fact that the child learns many things at once. On 
this rock of simultaneous learnings shall we by proper effort 
rear the needed structure of an all-round character.” 

“Don’t you think we ought to study more about these 
The loeteh ot simultaneous learnings? Wouldn’t our psy- 
ogy of simul- Chology help us?”’ 
ee ( “Yes, our psychology will help and we ought 

to bring it to bear on the problem. I should 
like nothing better than to follow it out.” 

‘First I should like to ask how your S > R formula fits 
what you call simultaneous learnings. S— R seems rather 
simple, single as it were, while these simultaneous learn- 
ings seem complexity itself.” 

‘“That’s a good question. To help answer it let’s bor- 
row from James two terms that he in turn had borrowed 
Roce and from Lloyd Morgan, focus and margin. As they © 
margin of used them, the thing we are mainly thinking — 
aria about at any one time is at that time in the — 
focus of consciousness. We are here discussing and think- — 
ing about these terms; they are accordingly in the focus; 
but while they are there the janitor opens the door and 
comes in to shut the windows. He was closing the windows _ 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 111 


before any one of us thought much about him. The kind 
of thinking by which we were aware of his coming in (yet 
continued to give principal and direct attention to our dis- 
cussion) these writers called marginal. At any one time 
we are giving focal attention to one thing, while on the 
side, as it were, we may be giving marginal attention to 
one or more other things. For certain purposes it is in- 
teresting to note that one’s attention is frequently shifted; 
what is now marginal may in a moment become focal, 
and what is now focal may then be marginal. When the 
window stuck and the janitor had to make serious efforts 
in order to lower it, we all began to watch. He and his 
window efforts ceased then to be marginal to us and 
became focal.” 

‘‘TDoesn’t this mean that there are many things on the 
margin, but only one in the focus?” 

“Ves, there are many marginal stimulations and, if you 
watch closely, also many marginal responses. While we are 
here thinking of focus and margin, which is our . 

‘ ean Many margi- 
focal response, we are also responding by sitting nat stimula- 
rather than lolling or falling out of our chairs. tions and 
We are turning heads and directing eyes now to oR 
this speaker and now to that. Some are taking notes. As 
one leaves the room, the others turn mechanically to let 
him pass. There are, during any extended period of atten- 
tion to any one main focus, a host of marginal stimulations 
and a host of marginal responses.” 

“Do not the ‘concomitants’ come in here?” 

“Yes precisely. They are — speaking generally — mar- 
ginal responses. We are pleased or displeased with this or 
that line of thought. This weighing or valuing, the ac- 
companying likes and dislikes, as now this and now that 
meets approval or disapproval — all of these are typically 
marginal responses.” 


112 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘Isn’t it true that almost no one can give focal attention 
to one thing indefinitely? I think I have heard so.” 

“Yes, there is normally a shift, possibly due to fatigue. 
The well-ordered mind comes back to its undertaking, but 

some people just hop from one thing to another 
The shift of 
focal attention 1 ‘Succession. Of course they are not so 
efficient.” 

‘Then the efficient person will during a considerable 
period of time have a principal focus of attention. From 
time to time his attention is drawn off, but he comes back. 
This principal focus guides and directs his steps.” 

‘‘It seems to me that you are now merely describing with 
& new set of terms a mind-set and how it works. The ef- 

ficient person is one who is capable of holding 
faci cal teens one end in view, more or less continuously, till 

it is attained or until he finds out he cannot 
reasonably attain it. Your principal focus seems to be 
about the same thing as the end upon which the mind 
is set.”’ 

‘Yes, I think you are right. But some one else has a 
question.” 

‘I was going to ask if the marginal stimulations we are 
all the time receiving do not attack and jeopardize, as it 
were, the focal mind-set?” 

‘Yes, and any one of these marginal stimulations, if the 
mind-set be not strong, may dislodge the present focal 
object and itself become focal.” 

“Isn’t that exactly what happens when street noises dis- 
tract the attention of a class? They are certainly side 
How distrac- Stimulations, and if they find the children not 
tions may interested in the lesson, they certainly dislodge 
Peco soca gi ty Long division or prepositions or the Mis- 
sour Compromise easily give way to a brass band. I am 
on a street where every procession comes by, and nearly 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 113 


every procession becomes focal for my pupils. Have I got 
the idea?”’ 

‘“Rxactly, and your illustrations are apt.” 

“But isn’t it hard sometimes to tell the difference be- 
tween suggestions that distract and tear down and sugges- 
tions that bring up new and constructive ideas? Are both 
marginal?”’ 

“You are quite right in distinguishing the two kinds of 
suggestions, and the line of demarcation may well be hard 
to draw. Both may be suggested by the focus. One would 
lead attention away and so bring another object into 
focus. ‘The other makes the old focal object grow. The 
rival thought suggested by the focus is what we called 
above an ‘associate suggestion.’ The suggestion that makes 
the focal object grow belongs to the primary learning.” 

“The word ‘efficient’ was earlier used in connection with 
those people whose attention remains true to one object, 
who fasten their fortune to one focus. Are there Tha eet ant 
limits to this? Suppose a coal pops out of the too little 
fire and I am too absorbed in writing to notice fixedness 
that the rug is burning, am I really efficient?” neva 

“You mean that a person ought to be reasonably alert 
to marginal stimulations. Indeed, yes. We call the other 
kind ‘absent-minded,’ and often laugh at their queer ways. 
Common sense seems to suggest a kind of middle ground 
between being scatter-brained and being absent-minded.”’ 

“Do not certain moral considerations enter here?”’ 

‘What do you have in mind?”’ 

‘Well, imagine a person anxious to make a trip. I have 
seen people who, once having got this idea into their heads, 
could see nothing else. The work left behind yroratity and 
undone, the resulting inconvenience to others, marginal 
~ eosts — none of these things got any consider- Busses ons 
ation. Once the trip had gained the focus, it held on 


114 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


against everything else. The person seemed to have be- 
come blind and deaf to every other consideration. I should 
call this selfishness.”’ 

“Tf I understand you then, a person facing a situation 
ought to be open to a great variety of questions besides the 
bare one of how to effect the end in view? Otherwise he may 
act wrongly.” 

‘Yes, before the end is accepted all its significant bearings 
ought to receive attention: Is the proposed enterprise wise 
and right? Is the cost reasonable? And even after it is 
accepted there should still be marginal sensitivity to new 
considerations. New evidence may demand a revision of 
judgment.”’ 

“Well, isn’t this just another way of saying again that 
there must be a just balance between the shut-mindedness 
of overmuch persistence and the open-mindedness which is 
too ready to take up new leads.”’ 

‘This all sounds good and true, but haven’t we forgotten 
the simultaneous learnings we started out to discuss?” 

‘‘Not a bit. We needed the notions of focus and margin 
to help us with simultaneous learnings. Take this last ques- 
tion about the preliminary consideration of right and wrong 
and the like, might a person so act as to increase his persist- 
ence or his sensitivity in such matters?” 

‘“‘Assuredly he might. Take persistence, for example. 
If he does persist this time more than usual and it turns out 
How persist. Well, what has psychology to say?” 
ence may be ‘‘T see, you mean ‘Practice with satisfaction.’ 
ocr eae If he practices with satisfaction a new per- 
sistency, this new and stronger persistency will grow to be 
habitual with him. Is that right?” 

“Yes, only we must not say that he will necessarily be 
equally persistent along all lines. His new persistence is 
likely to be limited pretty largely to this one line.” 


| 
: 
/ 
{ 





THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 115 


‘“‘Might his persistency grow too strong along one line?” 

“Indeed, yes; and it will probably so grow if there is 
no annoyance to rise up and check it. Your py cistence 
selfish man may be an instance.”’ may be too 

“Does this mean that he has learned to 2°! 
disregard the marginal responses that should warn him?” 

“Tt probably means that. If the warnings come and he 
disregards them and is satisfied with the results, he will in 
time almost certainly learn not even to hear or see such 
warnings. If, however, he obeys the warnings and is satis- 
fied with doing so, then he will likely increase in sensitivity 
to such warnings.” 

‘“‘Tt seems then that all depends on how it works, whether 
he is satisfied or not with the results.”’ 

‘“Fxactly so. This is nothing but our Law of Effect at 
work. Two things are necessary if one is to improve: The 
right and good must stand out from the wrong yoy censi- 
and bad, so as to be seen and known, and one tivity may be 
must be pleased with the right and troubled by et telohe 
the bad. If these conditions are met and one acts accord- 
ingly, growth in sensitivity to the right will come as a plain 
matter of fact.” 

‘‘Sensitivity to all right things?” 

“Indeed, no. Sensitivity along this one line and in some 


measure to other allied lines.” 


“Tg this the way that the proper balance is built up? I 
mean the balance between overmuch shut-mindedness on 
the one hand and a helter-skelter scatter-brainedness on the 
other hand?” 

“Yes, in just this way; and here is where the teacher 
comes in, to help build the proper sensitivities.” 

“Tsn’t this our problem of method seen from another 


point of view?” 


‘What do you mean?”’ 


116 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“‘T mean this, that what a person sees in any situation 
depends partly on what there is in the situation to be seen, 
Method and PUt possibly just as much on the person himself, 
the buildmg the sensitivities that he has built up so as to see 
of sensitivities the elements in the situation. We have seen 
how sensitivity is built. Now isn’t method, the new notion 
of method, just an effort to take care of building the proper 
sensitivities?” 

“That sounds interesting, but I wish you would say more 
about it. I don’t quite see.” 

‘““Why just this. We have already discussed how a person 
is stimulated marginally while he is paying main attention 
focally; he is inevitably so stimulated in many ways. We 
also have seen that there are many other elements in the 
situation that might and would stimulate us, at least mar- 
ginally, if only we were sensitive to them. Isn’t method just 
an effort to give larger opportunity and encouragement to 
building up sensitivities and attitudes in our young people, 
especially along these marginal lines?” 

‘Why say ‘especially’ along these lines? Are the marginal 
responses more important than others?” 

“T say ‘especially,’ partly because they are very important, 
partly because they are now so largely overlooked.”’ 

“It seems to me that we are now in the heart of the ques- 
tion of method, that is, the newer conception, the wider 
problem of method.” 

“Do you mean that it is our method of dealing with 
children that largely determines their marginal responses?” 
‘“That’s exactly what I mean. And it is the 


Method and j ; ; 
marginal marginal responses that build centers of interest 
aed Sarat and stimulation.” 


‘“‘T thought I agreed with you till you said ‘centers of 
interest and stimulation.’ Then I got lost. What do you 
mean?” 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 117 


‘To answer, let’s separate ‘centers of interest’ from 
‘centers of sensitivity,’ though we’ll see in a minute they 
are but two ways of describing the same thing. What is a 
Possibly the word ‘center’ is a stumbling block. center of 
Let’s look at it first. You agree that we may imterest? 
build an interest?” 

“Yes, I know as a child when I first heard of collecting 
stamps I thought it too silly for words. Later on I built so 
strong an interest in it myself that to this day it makes me 
notice and desire any unusual stamp. Itis almost a nuisance, 
as I don’t really wish them for myself and I have no one else 
to give them to.” 

“This interest that you built was composed of SR 
bonds?”’ 

“I suppose so; it must have been if our psychology is 
right.’ 

‘One $— R bond or a lot of them, an aggregate?” 

“Why I suppose a kind of organized aggregate centering 
about keeping unusual stamps.” 

‘Now that is exactly what I mean by a ‘center of interest,’ 
an aggregate of S—> R bonds so organized as to center about 
some one thing as an interest.” 

‘“Where does the sensitivity come in?” 

“That’s clear enough with my bothersome stamps. I 
can’t help seeing the things. I am very sensitive to the sight 
of any unusual stamp.”’ 

“Yes, and if we think a minute, sensitivity goes with the 
interest. It always does. Whatever you are interested in, 
you are keener to see.”’ 

“Isn’t this just what we said about mind-set and readi- 
ness?” 

‘Exactly so. An interest is but the abiding possibility 
of a mind-set, and a mind-set always means readiness along 
that line.” 


118 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Then to go back; if I understand you, you mean that 
we build interests and their accompanying sensitivities 
largely through paying attention to our marginal 
A Catt responses and that the problem of method is 
mainly then the problem of how to stimulate 

the right kind of marginal responses. Am I right?” 

“Yes, but not only to stimulate the right kind of re- 
sponses. We must also give opportunity to respond ac- 
cordingly and under such conditions as will select the good 
from the bad and give satisfaction to the good and annoy- 
ance to the bad.” 

‘““You never lose a chance to emphasize ‘such conditions 
as select the good from the bad’ or ‘give satisfaction to the 
good and annoyance to the bad.’ You surely lay stress on 
them.” 

‘‘Indeed I do, and I do it because they form the founda- 
tion of all learning.”’ 

‘“‘T am surprised that you as teacher wish to hand out 
satisfaction and annoyance. Are you not afraid that you 
will antagonize the pupils?”’ 

“T do not wish myself to apportion satisfaction and 
annoyance. I am afraid of just what you say. I wish as 


far as possible that these be inherent in what the children do. | 


Otherwise I should fear lest I defeat my own method by 
stimulating the wrong marginal responses. I refer to emo- 
tional responses against me and against the things I ap- 
prove.” 

“Do you mean that method is especially concerned with 
the marginal responses and not the focal?’”’ 


‘Method is concerned with both, but I here stress margi- — 
nal for the reasons stated before. They are very important — 


and we have too often neglected their method effect.” 
‘“Does method working through marginal responses seek 
to build anything else besides interests and sensitivities?” 


4 
« 
! 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 119 


“These are general terms; I have in mind every variety 
of interest, attitudes, ideals, standards, appreciations. All 
of these mean structures of 5 — R bonds capable of bringing 
about significant mind-sets and their appropriate readiness.” 

‘Tam sorry that we must stop thus in the middle of things, 
but there is too much ahead for us to go on now to the end.” 

‘“Won’t you say one word in conclusion?” 

“Tf I am restricted to a brief statement, it shall be this: 
We must depend upon method working upon marginal 
responses to build centers of interest.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING | 
See references at the end of Chapter I (page 18). 


CHAPTER IX 
THe Wiper ProspLem or Metruop — Concluded 


‘‘Can we go on from where we left off last time? I am very 
anxious to learn more about method and marginal re- 
sponses.’’ 

‘“‘By all means. What question do you raise first?” 

“Is there not a very wide range of stimulation? Some 
seem very obvious and impelling, others very delicate. I 
The range of SUPpose every degree lies in between.” 
marginal ‘You are quite right. The most obvious and 
stimulations =~ impelling will bring a focal response willy-nilly: 
the others shade off to those that we just barely notice.”’ 

‘Could you illustrate? It isn’t quite clear to me.” 

‘In ordinary life you can hardly avoid hearing and notic- 
ing a thunderclap. It is too loud not to be heard. Or 
better still, if someone sticks a pin sharply into your arm, 
the stimulation will immediately become focal. You can’t 
help it. Similarly in an ordinary schoolroom there are some 
stimulations more impelling than others. The word of com- 
mand of the teacher is the principal means relied upon to 
secure voluntary focal attention. This works because the 
children have built already certain attitudes of obedience. 
The doings of fellow students, street noises, heat or cold — 
these if emphatic enough will produce focal attention, dis- 
placing the teacher’s tasks from the focus. 

‘So much for the stimulations to focal attention. The 
most immediately impelling stimulations to marginal 
responses are perhaps the tone and manner of the teacher, 


and the observed responses of the other pupils. These come 
120 





THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 121 


at the outset of any new undertaking. Later on, the success 
or failure of what is undertaken brings very impelling margi- 
nal responses. ’’ 

‘““Do you mean that the tone and the manner of the 
teacher stir to approval or disapproval?”’ 

“Yes, and to like and dislike. As I see it each child is 
building all the time centers of interest (whether of like 
or dislike) regarding the teacher, the school, AANA 
the subject, the way of doing things, the pupil’s interest 
own self-esteem in its various degrees of self- always being 

‘ os uilt 
confidence or conceit or abasement, a liking 
or disliking for the pupils he works with, etc., etc. Each 
of these is a center both of sensitivity to receive impressions 
and of expression to give out responses. What results from 
the responses is of course determined by the laws of learn- 
ing.” 

“But these are not the only environmental factors that 
stir to marginal responses, are they?” 

‘Indeed, no. One consideration, very important but less 
obvious perhaps than the foregoing, is whether the general 
scheme of school life, both of curriculum and of management, 
does or does not satisfy the ‘natural’ aspirations of child- 
hood and youth. Such aspirations of course are very 
varied. If the ‘higher’ aspirations are stimulated and 
granted satisfactory expression, the ‘lower’ are likely to be 
inhibited. This one question of expressing childhood and 
youth is big enough for much study and many books. The 
felt adequacy or inadequacy of the available self-expression 
creates in the class and school a popular mind- 
set which by its attendant readinesses and un- spirit 
readinesses determines in turn, for the adoles- 
cent at any rate, almost everything else about a school.” 

“T hadn’t thought of it in just these terms, but I can see 
what you mean. Will it not, however, be true that this 


122 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


adequacy or inadequacy as the pupils see it will vary 
greatly with the times? If they don’t expect too much, 
won’t they more easily be satisfied?”’ 

‘Yes, and that creates one of our very difficult problems, 
but we can not, I fear, go into it now.” 

‘What are some of the least obvious or least compelling’ 
environmental influences? Would you, among these, name 
Least com- He pictures on the wall?” 
pelling “Yes, both their esthetic value and the 
stimulations), <tories they tell may stimulate marginal re- 
sponses. Many children, of course, escape both. The 
cleanliness of the schoolroom and yards is perhaps a bit 
more obvious. The school architecture, too, must have 
some effect.’’ 

‘““Now you are getting mystical. I’d like to know what 
effect on my depraved youngsters architecture can have. I 
must say right here that I think you are going 
entirely too far with this method business and 
these marginal responses. School isn’t run to 
please children. There are certain things they have to 
learn. We are here to see that they learn them; and I, for 
one, propose to see to it that my pupils do learn them. 
Furthermore, I believe in assigning lessons, tasks if you 
please, and I test too. I can’t afford to be squeamish about 
what you call marginal responses. I assign lessons and I 
expect them to be learned. We know what is good for our 
children. They don’t. It isn’t my business whether chil- 
dren like me or not, or like school or not, or like books or 
not. Some day they’ll thank me, if they don’t now. I 
am going to do my duty, come what may.” 

‘Do you mean that it makes no difference whether we 
build in our children an interest in school, let us say?” 

“TI say that it’s not my business. I teach the sixth 
grade. The course of study tells me what I must teach 


An opposed 
opinion 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 123 


and what my children must learn. I propose to see that 
they learn it. Beyond that is not my concern.’ 

‘You don’t care then whether or not your children stop 
school as soon as the law allows. It’s nothing to you 
whether or not they go on to the high school?” 

‘‘That’s not my business. I am here to teach the re- 
quired course of study. It’s for others to say whether it is 
good or bad. I do my duty and leave the results where they 
belong.” 

“Well, I am sorry you look on teaching in that way. I 
am sorry you don’t see that your duty includes the welfare 
of the child. Surely there can be nothing more important 
than the attitudes and ideals the child builds. It is equally 
certain that he must build them by his own responses. If 
I as teacher can help, I must help. No duty could be 
more sacred. How best to help is not always easy to tell, 
but surely study of these things will help. If you think 
the school architecture is not a factor with all children you 
are probably correct. But certainly there are some for 
whom it has some effect.”’ 

‘‘Ign’t this best seen in a great cathedral? My church 
doesn’t have cathedrals, but there are certain great and 
beautiful cathedrals which I cannot enter with- ya 
out feeling their effect. It stirs me to awe and ena ate 
worship. The height and the beauty enter, as edifice and 

: ce : ritual 

Plato said, ‘into the innermost recesses of my 

soul. If at the same time I can hear the organ, the effect 
is greatly increased. I do not myself care for ritual, but I 
can well understand the combined effect, particularly on 
those who have been taught to revere it from youth, of the 
great building, its marvelous beauty, the grandeur of the 
music, the color of robe and vestment, the incense. If 
these things had no effect to stir man they would never 
have been cared for, or would have died out long ago. 


124. FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


You may disapprove if you wish, but how you can deny 
their effect is more than I can see.” 

“Do you mean that beauty and grandeur of building and 
ceremony can build character? I don’t see for my part how 

moral character can be built apart from moral 
Paice conduct. What becomes of all our discussion 

about ‘Practice with satisfaction,’ and ‘We do 
not build where we do not practice’? I think you are 
inconsistent? ”’ 

‘‘T have never claimed to know either how or whether the 
morally desirable character can be built either in part or in 
whole from worship. A character for action I am satisfied 
can be built only from action. All I claimed was that edifice 
and ceremony do arouse marginal responses. What character 
changes result from such responses depend upon what is done 
about them and in connection with them, and, of course, 
upon what satisfactions and annoyances accompany?” 

“To turn aside slightly, don’t you think that the con- 
sciousness of heroes in one’s family or nation may stir 
marginal responses in one?”’ 

“Now there you go again. What kind of responses? 
Of contentment that one has inherited so great glory or of 
stimulation to add to the glory? Generally of 
contentment, I say. Surely it makes a great 
difference which.”’ 

“T agree that it does make a great difference which is 
stirred, and there are, I think, both possibilities. But if 
there are both possibilities, then there follow both oppor- 
tunity and duty for parent and teachers to direct the stir- 
ring wisely. In any event, we have another method effect 
and another reason for studying the problem of method.” 

“This whole thing begins to open up to me as never 
before. It seems then that anything that one has experi-~ 
enced, or even heard about, may have, as you call it, method 


Historic 
glory 


a ee ee en % 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 125 


effect. In my own case, while yet young, I heard from my 
older brothers of a certain very difficult problem in arith- 
metic which they had solved. As I in turn approached 
that problem, this knowledge spurred me to equal them. I 
was determined not to fall behind them.”’ 

“Yes, and an illustrious past may stir the young patriot 
to maintain the record. The world has known this from 
all time.” 

‘“‘This may be a fall from the sublime to the ridiculous, 
but many Europeans think the great size, 
the abundant resources, and the prodigious 
material success of this country have regis- 
tered themselves in the characters of American tourists.’ 

‘“‘Made them braggarts, you mean?”’ 

“T am not saying. I doubt that it has had any one 
effect on all, but that the consciousness of all this does have 
an effect I don’t doubt. I have even heard the opinion 
expressed that in many Texans the size of the state has 
influenced the character, giving it perhaps a certain big 
openness of attitude.” 

‘““May not the opposite influence also be observed? I 
have seen a child handicapped by some 
family disgrace either shrink mortified into 
the background or, worse, try to brazen it 
out. Under such circumstances can the child avoid being 
hurt by the sin of his elders?”’ 

“You have certainly broadened my conception of the 
problem of method, but I don’t quite see something that 
was said earlier about a democratic method. As 
I recall, Prussia had its method, and we should renee 
have ours. May we discuss that further?” 

“Yes, do. I remember Dr. Thomas Alexander’s state- 
ment! that he visited over three hundred Volksschule 


1 Prussian Elementary Schools, p. 277. 


The size of 
a country 


The influence 
of disgrace 


126 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


classes before he heard a single child ask a single question. 
Would that illustrate the point?”’ 

“Yes. ‘The Prussians wished positively to form the habit 
of accepting authority and commands from others; nega- 
tively, they did not wish these children to get the habit of 
questioning. If they should form a questioning habit, they 
might question the monarchical and military system under 
which they were being suppressed. But these things are 
not confined to Prussia. I heard a young student at an 
American university say that while he was acting as a 
foreman of a labor gang at a coal mine the preceding sum- 
mer he was told by one of the managers, ‘Don’t explain 
to the men what they are about; they will get the attitude 
of asking why.’ ’’! 

“What, then, would you advocate in our schools different 
from what is now found?”’ 

“Nothing startling. We are already far more demo- 
cratic in our school procedure than are most European 
schools. But we can improve on what we 
have. Ill ask you two questions to indicate 
my thought. First, what are the characteristics 
of the good citizen in a democracy? Second, what kind of 
growing and practice will lead from and through healthy, 
happy childhood continuously up to such a democratic citi- 
zenship? What do you say now to the first of these?” 

“Taking the hint from Prussia and the coal mine, I 
should say we wish citizens able and disposed to think for 
themselves, not the kind to be led submissively about by 
bosses, whether political, industrial, or religious. That’s 
one thing.” ) 

“You mean they are to think about social matters? 
That means they must also be intelligent and informed 
about such matters, doesn’t it?”’ 

1 Reported to me as a true incident. — W. H. K 


Character- 
istics needed 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 127 


“Ves, and I should add they must also be able and dis- 
posed to accept responsibility, and to put the common 
good ahead of everything else, and to subordinate to it all 
mere private or personal advantage — in particular, to be- 
lieve in the rule of law and order.”’ 

‘Suppose we sum all this up by saying we want citizens 
who are open-minded, yet critical-minded, who are in- 
formed and intelligent, who accept the rule of law and 
responsibility for the common good. What then do we 
wish in our schools?”’ 

“Tf we believe that ‘Practice with satisfaction’ is the 
rule for learning, we'll want our young people to practice 
these things with satisfaction to themselves as much and 
as far as is feasible, and to have them begin such practicing 
as soon as possible.”’ 

“Are you not afraid of overdoing this independence? 
Children easily get out of hand and become pert and spoiled 
and selfish.”’ 

“There are dangers and we must be careful. That’s 

why I said ‘as much and as far as feasible.’ There are 
limits, but that’s no reason why we should refuse to go as 
far as we feasibly can. It is for experiment to tell us how 
far we can go; and it will certainly be much further than 
used to be thought possible.”’ 
_ “This sounds very good, but it seems to me you have 
got off the track. I thought we were discussing marginal 
responses and method in relation to them. This is nothing 
but curriculum content.” 

“Content perhaps. It is in a sense just that, since we 
are describing what we want. But ask.how it is to come, 
if at all, and you'll see, I think, where our method comes 
in with its emphasis on marginal responses. Did you notice 
how large a part the word ‘disposition’ played in our state- 
ment? This is just what the older method disregarded.” 


128 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘Do you mean that heretofore we have largely sought 
textbook knowledge and trusted to that?” 

‘That’s part of what I mean. Let’s look at it squarely. 
The old way, the way in which most of us were brought up 
and the way still largely used, has been, first, 


Attitudes ; : 
too much to put into a course of study what the children 
aBnOred should be taught; second, to assign this to 


them for learning; third, to test them to see if it had been 
learned. Now this meant, it was obliged to mean, that 
pupils were held accountable for learning only and exactly 
what could be assigned and tested, and teachers were ac- 
cordingly held accountable for teaching only and exactly 
what could be assigned and tested.” 

‘And you mean that open-mindedness, critical-minded- 
ness, and regard for the common good, all of which are dis- 
positions as you called them, could neither be assigned nor 
tested?” 

“Yes, I mean exactly that and, furthermore, that prac- 
tical school people, superintendents, supervisors, and teach- 
ers have ordinarily given their official attention to informa- 
tion and skills that could be assigned and tested with, at 
best, some further attention to intelligence, for the intelligent 
use of some things can be assigned and tested; but that all 
interests, ideals, attitudes, appreciations have been slighted 
if not ignored.”’ 

‘Is it a sign of the same thing that pupils are promoted 


usually on their achievements in these assignable-testable — 


things?” 

SaLithin keri sees 

‘But I still don’t see the marginal responses. I hope you 
don’t think me either stupid or stubborn, but I thought we 
were discussing method in relation to marginal responses. 
Instead you talk about assignment and testing.” 

‘IT don’t think we have got far off the track. We stated 





THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 129 


the desirable characteristics of a democratic citizen. Upon 
examination they are seen to consist as truly of interests, 
attitudes, and habits as of information and skills and the 
intelligent use of information and skills. The old way was 
to assign and test. This— so far as it was followed ex- 
actly — left out all appreciations and dispositions, all inter- 
ests, attitudes, ideals.” 

“Your point then is that the marginal responses can not 
be assigned and that it is these that must build dispositions, 
interests, ideals, and appreciations, if such are Marcinal 
to be built at all?”’ responses 

“Ves that is what I mean; and I further cannot be 
mean an about-face of method so as to care aesiened 
for these marginal responses and what they can build.” 

‘“ And that means?”’ 

“Tt means that we stress activities, enterprises, expe- 
riences which enlist the heart and soul of childhood and 
youth. In connection with these we can get 
needed information and skills; from them and iat for 
from them only must be got such marginal 
responses as will build the attitudes we wish.” 

“Then the good method as you see it is such a managing 
of school, of both equipment and children, as will enlist 
childhood and youth in wholehearted, purposeful activities?” 

“Ves, for out of them we can best get not only whatever 
primary learning we need, but also the most numerous and 
the most useful associate responses, and at the same time the 
most wholesome concomitants.”’ 

“You don’t mean that all ages can purpose with equal 
clearness or wisdom?” 

“Assuredly not. But each for his own age can put heart 
and soul into his sort of activities. Each by exercising 
whatever degree of development he has will best carry him- 
self forward to the next stage.”’ 


130 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘You don’t mean to turn children loose?” 

‘By nomeans. My way needs teachers, and good teachers, 
just as much as does the old, if possible even more so. Only 
they act at a different point. In my notion they should help 
children to help themselves. People learn open-mindedness 
by having a chance to practice open-mindedness and under 
such social conditions as call for it. So with critical-minded- 
ness. So with accepting responsibility for the common 
good.” 

‘Do you mean that we should expect young children to 
accept responsibility for the common good of this whole 
Building country? | That seems like a ‘big order’ for 
interestsin young children?” 
the common ‘Not in the sense you seem to have in mind. 
ny Any notion of the common good must be built 
gradually. Have you seen two boys riding one sled, one 
pushing off while the other steers? Have they a common 
good?” 

“Yes, though they don’t name it that way.” 

“Quite right, then I should wish many opportunities in 
child life to have ‘common good’ experiences; and I should 
hope that these experiences would involve joint responsi- 
bility for the common good and some inherent and intrinsic 
difficulties in meeting them. When any child failed to accept 
and render his share of the responsibility, I should hope all 
concerned would trace the shortcoming to the right place, 
namely, to him and his failure. I should further hope that he 
would see clearly and regret keenly his shortcoming, and 
I shouldn’t object if the others helped him regret it by 
showing disapproval of such conduct. Only I should know 
that too great a disapproval might provoke angry resent- 
ment and so distract attention from the original fault and 
so fail to teach the proper lesson.”’ 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 131 


“Would this be ‘ Practice with satisfaction’ or ‘ Let annoy- 
ance attend the wrong’ as the case might be?”’ 

EY es.’ 

“But this is a long way off from the common good of the 
country or of humanity.”’ 

“Yes it is, but we must be patient. We must begin in 
small ways and grow only gradually. First, small joint 
enterprises, then larger. First, affairs close at hand, then 
some at a distance. The Junior Red Cross enterprises belong 
here. After a while conscious generalization will help. It 
too must begin small and grow gradually, and generalization 
must always be joined with actual behavior responses lest 
we build sentimentality. It is indeed a slow business and 
requires great patience.” 

“Just where does method come in here? I am a bit con- 
fused.” 

“Method comes in helping along such common good 
enterprises as this double sled-riding, and in helping, if need 
be, to insure that shortcomings are duly seen 
and regretted. This means the sensitivities that pasties 
we discussed a little while ago.” 

‘‘But this is out of doors. Can we have such things in 
the schoolroom?”’ 

“Indeed, yes. It is a part of good method to help along 
gripping and fruitful indoors enterprises, both individual 
and group.” 

‘Where now do the marginal responses enter?” | 
‘All the time some sort of marginal responses are going 
on. We wish the healthy and wholesome kind. These are, 
other things being equal, most likely to attend those whole- 
some activities into which the young people put their whole 

souls.”’ | 

“This takes us back to purposeful learning as opposed to 
coercion, which we have already discussed. But as I now 


132 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


see, our discussion was largely restricted to the primary 
learnings. Could you now say a word about the associates 
and concomitants?”’ 

“'The plan as here proposed is that we seek to have our 
children engage in enterprises that, psychologically, meet 

i two conditions: first, that stir wholesome in- 
ace: terests already present so as to rouse strong 
to growth mind-sets; second, that once begun reach out 

beyond the limits of what the children now see 
and know and can do. If strong mind-sets are stirred we 
shall have endeavor — the strong inner urge — and readi- 
ness for whatever helps to the end in view. If the enter- 
prises, for their successful execution, reach beyond the 
present powers and knowledge of the children, then we have 
conditions that call for growth. New things must be 
learned.” 

‘“‘Is this just the same matter that we considered in dis- 
cussing mind-set and learning?’’ 

‘“Yes, only here we have added that the enterprises should 
reach beyond present attainments.”’ 

‘But I still don’t see the marginal responses or the asso- 
ciates and concomitants. Why don’t you tell it right out? 
Why beat about the bush?” 

‘There are too many things involved to tell 
them all at once. We have to go slowly. But 
now for marginal responses. Do you recall our discussion on 
mind-set and readiness?” 

‘““Yes, we saw how the girl who was eagerly making a dress 
was ready to think dresses, to see dresses, to talk dresses, in 
short to do anything that had to do with that on which she 
was set.” 

‘‘Ready all over?” 

“Yes, that’s it.” 

“Is there any connection here with marginal responses?” 


Attendant 
learnings 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 133 


‘“‘T hadn’t thought of it before, but I see now. Readiness 
means easier stimulation and more likelihood of responses. 
Any hint would more easily stir ready bonds. Yes, I see.” 

‘““And do you see any connection with associate sug- 
gestions?” 

‘Yes, I see; readiness means that the marginal responses 
are more likely to occur and so are more numerous. Some 
of these lead directly into better making of the 
dress, and so help swell the primary responses; arta 
but others would, if followed, take attention 
away from the dress; these you called ‘associate suggestions.’ 
Yes, I see how readiness through the avenue of the marginal 
stimulation would bring more numerous associate sugges- 
tions. That’s clear, but how about the concomitants?”’ 

‘‘Just what do you mean by concomitants? I am a bit 
confused.” 

‘They were the responses that accompanied whatever 
was primarily going on; overtones, you might call them, of 
feeling; judgments that are going on along with 
whatever one is doing: ‘This is fine,’ ‘He is a 
ninny,’ ‘I am getting it, hurrah!’ ‘T hate to do this,’ ‘School 
is a bore,’ ‘The teacher isn’t fair.’ ”’ 

‘‘T don’t see the marginal in these.” 

‘You don’t! Don’t you see that while the girl is making 
her dress, or the boy his birdhouse, or the class is planning 
an excursion, they are primarily (focally) intent on dress or 
bird-house or excursion, and all the while other things are 
intruding (marginally)? Especially are the children respond- 
ing emotionally (that is with like or dislike or valuing) to 
each thing that comes up, so that each child is building (and 
fastening) dispositions or attitudes out of these likes and 
dislikes, fastening them in himself toward teacher, school, 
subject being studied, going to college, our country, being 
honest, etc., etc. In strictness each thing we do helps to 


Concomitants 


134 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


build three things: a motor response of skill in so doing (or 
of not doing), a memory connection, and a disposition toward . 
(or away from) doing it. The disposition to do (or not to do) 
is but one aspect of the whole act, but it is an aspect that 
may grow. When it has grown sufficiently, it takes its part 
along with others like it in determining what one will do in 
general. These accompanying aspects are what we call 
concomitants and they are exactly accompanying or margi- 
nal responses to focal objects. Concomitants are thus built 
up around each object that gets implicated through marginal 
responses with what one does.” 

‘“What have ‘set’ and readiness to do with this?” 

‘‘Almost everything. The set and readiness enter into 
the determination of the marginal responses. A set against 
How set and 18 likely to mean a response of dislike. A 
readiness favorable set is likely to mean a response of 
enter like. Of course success and failure enter in as 
we have previously discussed.” 

‘‘What is your conclusion of set and concomitants?” 

“That when children work successfully at purposeful 
activities which challenge their powers, they almost certainly 
build favorable attitudes (concomitants) toward everything 
that entered helpfully into the success.” 

‘“‘Ts this the way to build an interest in literature, for exam- 
ple?”’ 

“Ves, speaking generally, this is the way to build an 
interest in anything.” 

“What is your conclusion about method?” 

“Simply this, that the wider problem of method has to 
to do with all the responses children make as they work, 
and its concern is to help children build the total 
of these responses into the best possible whole. 
The narrow problem concerns itself with how the children 
shall best learn this or that specific thing, generally named 


Conclusion 


THE WIDER PROBLEM OF METHOD 135 


in advance. The wider problem concerns itself with all the 
responses being made. Since the older education limited 
itself to the narrow problem, the newer education stresses 
the wider problem without, however, overlooking the other. 
In particular the wider problem is much concerned to build 
attitudes and appreciations. In so doing, it builds the heart 
of the child; and out of the heart are the issues of life.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 
See references at the end of Chapter I (page 18). 


CHAPTER xX: 
INTEREST 


‘“Why have we said so little about interest? I thought it 
was admittedly one of the main factors in modern educa- 
Interest and tion.” 
modern ‘‘Haven’t we been discussing interest all the 
Coan time? It seems so to me.” 

“We've hardly mentioned the word, I think. How can 
you say we’ve been discussing it all the time?” 

‘‘What is interest?” 

‘“‘T’ll tell you what interest is and you'll see that I for one 
don’t believe in it. Interest is the best known device for 
Anadverse  SPOlling children. To go around hunting for 
view of easy, interesting things for children to do, to 
MAS be forever trying to amuse them, to be forever 
asking what they’d like to do, and whether it pleases them 
to do this rather than that — this is what interest means 
and, I repeat it, it is the best way yet devised for spoiling 
children. I haven’t agreed with all that has been said here 
from time to time, but I have been thankful that so far 
no one has advocated this wishy-washy, namby-pamby 
‘doctrine of interest.’ I think it is the worst educational 
doctrine I know.” 

‘“‘Tf interest is all that and just that, it is pretty bad; 
and I shouldn’t blame you for objecting to it. But is that 
the doctrine of interest?’’ 

“‘T thought it was admitted that a child, anybody in fact, 
learns better when he is interested; and I have read that 


fatigue, mental fatigue I mean, or at least what commonly 
136 


INTEREST 137 


passes for mental fatigue, is largely boredom, lack of in- 
terest. Are not these things scientifically proved? If so, 
how can the doctrine of interest be so bad as we have Just 
been told?”’ 

“Do you deny that children can be spoiled? Have you 
never seen a spoiled child? And can you think of a better 
way to spoil a child than always to be trying to amuse him 
and encouraging him to do only what interests him? I am 
in earnest about this thing. I believe that the whole question 
of vigorous moral character is at stake, and therefore I am 
dead against the whole doctrine of interest. It’s vicious.” 

‘We don’t seem to be talking about the same thing 
exactly. Can’t we get together as to what we mean?” 

“Ton’t the fact that the term is misunderstood one reason 
why we don’t hear so much about interest as formerly. I 
heard a lecturer say he seldom used the word ‘interest’ 
unless he had ample time to explain what he meant, because 
so many people misunderstand.” 

‘Suppose for the sake of getting together we agree — at 
least tentatively — that there are two uses of the word, a 
good use or meaning of interest and a bad use 
and meaning of interest. Perhaps later we can yatta 
get the two meanings closer together. Can’t 
we bring in our psychology? For surely if interest has any 
meaning we can state it psychologically. Let’s take clear 
cases at first. What are some good instances of interest and 
what do they mean psychologically?”’ 

‘Washington was deeply interested in establishing the 
new government. How will that do?”’ 

“That’s a good instance. Now let’s have another.’’ 

“Mary is deeply interested in making a doll’s dress.’ 

“Again, good. Now another.” 

‘(A man of many interests is more likely to be com. 
panionable than one of few interests.” 


138 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘This last brings up a distinction. Do you notice it has 
the noun ‘interests,’ ‘many interests,’ while the others are 
both verbal in form, ‘was interested,’ ‘is interested.’ More 
precisely the first two are instances of interest now active, 
now in operation. In the last case the man has ‘many 
interests,’ but we do not necessarily think of any of them 
as being just now active. Just as tennis is one of my 
interests, but I am not playing it at present nor is my 
interest in tennis now aroused or active. Does this bring 
to mind any psychology?” 

‘Isn’t it the formula S > R? We have many such bonds 
and carry them about with us, but they are active only as 
stimulated.” 

‘So far so good, but I was thinking of mind-set, which is 
of course based on S—R. To have tennis as an abiding 
NBevehotost interest means to have built up already in the 
cally, interest past within one an aggregate of tennis-regarding 
ismind-set_ = and tennis-acting S > R bonds such that when 
this aggregate is properly stimulated we have and feel right 
then and there a mind-set on tennis, and when this mind-set 
is so aroused, the person is at that time actively interested 
In tennis.” 

‘Tf I understand you then, interest is psychologically the 
same as mind-set. The abiding but now unaroused interest 
means the possession of an appropriate aggregate of SR 
bonds. When this aggregate is stirred so that the mind is 
now set on doing something about this thing, the interest 
is active.”’ 

‘“Iixactly so. Interest to me is simply another way of 
naming and describing the psychology of mind-set and 
readiness.” 

“To you, then, the doctrine of interest in education is 
nothing but the doctrine of mind-set and learning. Am I 
right?” 


INTEREST 139 


‘““Yes, practically that.” 

‘Where does readiness come in?”’ 

“When one is interested, actively interested at the pres- 
ent time, as the little girl is in making a doll’s dress, 1s 
there any readiness?’’ 

“Surely, she is ready ‘all over,’ as we said once before 
when we were discussing mind-set and readiness. But this 
only confirms the idea that interest and mind-set are the 
same thing.” 

‘Ts this why interest is a favorable condition for learning?” 

‘“Tixactly so. We could if we wished repeat under the 
head of interest our whole discussion of mind-set and 
learning and this in all its applications to pri- poy interest 
mary, associate, and concomitant learnings.’’ __ is favorable 

“Does this mean that there is no such thing * lems 
as spoiling, that we have nothing to fear under that head?” 

“Not a bit of it. I thmk we can accept pretty much 
everything that has been said here to-day against indulgence 
and spoiling.” | 

‘‘Now I am getting confused. At one time the doctrine 
of interest is the same as the doctrine of mind-set and readi- 
ness and is all good. But now we seem to hear that the 
doctrine of interest is a doctrine of indulgence and spoiling 
and is, therefore, bad. Which is it? Good or bad?” 

“Not quite so fast. Are all mind-sets good or may some 
of them be bad?”’ 

“Some may be bad.”’ 

‘‘ And interests, are they good or may they be bad?”’ 

“Of course, they may be bad, but that is not quite the 
question. It is the ‘doctrine of interest’ we are asking 
about. What is the doctrine of interest? I understand a 
doctrine of interest to be some position or opinion as to 
how interest should be used. Now what is the doctrine of 
interest? ”’ 


140 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“It seems to me that we find advocated two doctrines 
of interest. They overlap perhaps, but one is carelessly 
conceived and the other carefully conceived. One is 
clearly indefensible. The other stands on quite a different 
basis.” 

‘“How do you state the two?” 

‘The indefensible position is the one we heard about at 
the outset to-day. It says that since interest is the condi- 
tion favorable for learning, one must, therefore, 
strive to interest children; amuse them; cajole 
them; do anything so long as they are inter- 
ested. This doctrine is bad. It easily leads to, and could 
hardly fail to lead to spoiling, to forming all sorts of bad 
habits.”’ 

“But are you not forced logically to this position, I mean 
to this doctrine of interest, if you start out by saying that a 
state of interest is desirable? If it is desirable, why not 
get it, and get it any way you can?” 

‘In order to answer, let’s get the other doctrine of interest 
before us. Interest is the name this second position gives 
Interestas 10 that state of affairs in which one is intent 
whole-hearted On something, in which his mind is so set on 
Sento some activity that he is striving to go ahead 
with the activity. It may be a child who is intent on 
making a doll’s dress; it may be a poet intent on expressing 
adequately his deepest insight into life. Each is inter- 
ested. This kind of interest inspires whole-hearted en- 
deavor. Each one finds his whole being unitedly and 
absorbedly at work upon the object of interest. The 
essence of this interest is that the self is active and unified 
as it works. This doctrine of interest says that interest, 
so understood, is the guarantee of attention and effort ; and 
that such attentive and interested effort best utilizes the 
laws of learnings, particularly of set, readiness, and effect. 


A wrong kind 
of interest 


INTEREST 141 


So stated, the doctrine of interest is nothing but the 
doctrine of mind-set and learning as we have previously 
discussed it.”’ 

“You don’t mean to deny that there are degrees of 
interest? ”’ 

“Most assuredly not. There are infinitely many de- 
grees, reaching from those things that we do only under 
the direst compulsion up to those into which we put our 
whole souls.”’ 

“Then I don’t understand your doctrine of interest. 
Which kind of interest are you talking about?”’ 

“My doctrine of interest, as a psychological doctrine, is 
that learning conditions are met in the degree that whole- 
hearted interest (short of painful solicitude) is present.”’ 

“Why say ‘short of painful solicitude’?” 

‘Because we are discussing learning conditions, and I 
know that anxiety or fear may be so great as to interfere with 
learning. So I wish whole-heartedness of interest short of 
such fear or anxiety.”’ 

“You say that this doctrine of interest is a psychological 
matter. You seem to mean that there is something else. 
Is there some other doctrine of interest?”’ 

“There is more yet — an ethical or social aspect to the 
question. Suppose a bad interest, I mean a socially bad 
one. If the child were whole-hearted about it, 
he might, psychologically, learn just as well as 
if it were a good interest. We need then some 
criterion to tell a good interest from a bad one. That is 
what I had in mind.” 

‘Can you give us such a criterion?” 

“Qo far as I can see, we best judge by the kind of growth 
that comes from the interest.” 

“Tg this where indulgence comes in? Or rather how we 
tule out indulgence?”’ 


When inter- 
ests are good 


142 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Yes, when a child, or grown person for that matter, 
engages in an interest that merely excites, merely amuses, 
and so leaves no growth effect, we say he is indulging him- 
self, and we call such interest or activity a worthless one or 
perhaps positively bad.” 

“Tf I understand you, you are now criticizing the other 
doctrine of interest.”’ 

‘Yes, that doctrine of interest was content with what it 
called a ‘state of interest’ (whatever that meant). It for- 
got that interest is essentially active. It was willing for 
children to be always and merely amused. That such 
treatment of children would be bad no one need question. 
Instead of leading to growth, it would rather hinder 
growth.” 

‘“Doesn’t this connect with what was said the last time 
we met [page 130] about wishing activities that appeal to 
the child as he is, but at the same time challenge his power 
and call for knowledge and skill beyond his present achieve- 
ments? I may have added a word or two to what was 
then said, but that was the idea as I got it. This criterion 
for evaluating interests seems to me to be the same as 
that.” 

“Yes, itis the same. Both statements look to growth, to 
progress in the life of individual and of society. We object 
to ‘mere excitement,’ to ‘mere pleasure,’ to 
indulgence, because they not only don’t lead 
on, but, even worse, they are likely to set up 
habits of indifference or of excitement that hinder healthy 
growth. I think we see such in many card players and 
theater habitués. They are blasé, bored, cynical. Life has 
lost its enthusiasms for them.” 

‘“T understand your criticism of the false doctrine of 
interest, but is it fair to say that anybody ever held it as 
a doctrine?” 


How indul- 
gence injures 


INTEREST 143 


“Possibly not, at least not in the form in which its op- 
ponents state it; but I think probably some have miscon- 
ceived the better doctrine and have said or done things 
that have brought any notion of interest into contempt.” 

“You used the word ‘effort’ a while ago. I have been 
hoping we could talk about that. I have been confused 
by some discussions I have heard.” 

‘““What do you mean?” 

‘Why, I have heard some say that as between interest 
and effort, they would choose effort every time. But 
others say that interest and effort go together. 

From the discussion so far the latter seems the ese pag 
better statement, but I should like to have the © 
matter cleared up.”’ 

“Do you think the poet we mentioned earlier put forth 
any effort?”’ 

‘Certainly he did. It is no easy matter to express one’s 
idea adequately. I have understood that many writers 
search weeks at a time for a word with just the right shade of 
meaning. Effort, yes; more effort than most people know.” 

“Now, J think you are wrong. For the poet his search, 
even though it is long, is such a matter of love — if he is 
a true poet — that he doesn’t count it effort. To him it is 
interest, absorbed interest, that and nothing more. To 
eall it effort is to degrade both the poet and his interest.” 

‘“Tsn’t it clear that you two have used effort in two 
quite different senses? One counts effort to be the steps 
taken in the active working out of interest, or 
perhaps better, the steps taken in the face of 
difficulty and in spite of the difficulty. This 
naturally makes effort the correlative of interest, the 
stronger the interest the greater — if need be — will be the 
effort. The other counts effort to be work done unwillingly, 
‘against the grain,’ as we say. This notion will naturally 


Two senses 
of effort 





144 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


oppose interest and effort to each other — the more effort, 
the less interest.’’ 

‘Which is the right meaning?” 

‘“Possibly there is room for both, if we are careful to let 
people know which we are using on any occasion.”’ 

‘Does this mean that one kind of effort is as good as 
the other?”’ 

“Not at all. Which is the kind that we most wish?” 

‘Why, the first kind. The effort that comes from inter- 
est. The more of that there is in the world, the more 
there is accomplished.”’ 

“Yes, and not only that; but the more joy there is ir, 
life. Successful endeavor after strenuous effort brings keen 
satisfaction. Happiness comes by that road.” 


‘Do you mean that happiness consists of doing things — 


yourself? I don’t think so; I like to be waited on, to have 
things done for me. I have had to work so hard 
all my life that I have come to look on happiness 
as being able to take my ease, ring a bell and 
have a servant come to learn my wish, buy anything I fancy, 


Effort and 
happiness 


have a box at the opera and go as often as I like, buy pictures _ 
and old furniture, have an interior decorator to plan my — 
house. This is my ideal of happiness. And other people 
seem to agree. If this isn’t happiness why does almost — 


everybody wish this sort of life?’ 


“Many people do think this way about happiness, or at | 
any rate act as if they so thought. But I am willing to abide 


by what I said. As between passivity and activity, having 
things done for one and doing things oneself, there can be 
no question as to where happiness lies. Happiness is 
essentially a matter of activity, of such activity as means 
growth. In the long run anything else fails.” 


“This all sounds very well. I can’t object to what you — 


have said so far. But you haven’t said enough, and you are 


i. a 


INTEREST 145 


going off to one side. The practical question still remains. 
If you could get whole-hearted interest for all the necessary 
efforts of life the problem of education might be simple. 
But you can’t do it. Some things are not interesting. Life 
isn’t based on the interest theory. It is full of disagreeable 
things, things that simply are not interesting and can’t be 
made so. Now what are you going to do? If you ignore 
this effort side of life, you simply fail to prepare children to 
live in this world. I challenge you to answer. What are 
you going to do?” 

“Tt is an important question and we must face it. But 
let us face it fairly. Why do people do disagreeable things? 
If we can answer that of grown people, possibly ans He 
we can tell how to educate children. Do you do the dis- 
disagreeable things? And can you name one?” pera oale 

“T most certainly have to do disagreeable things. My 
friend and I have a kitchenette apartment and do light 
housekeeping. Most of it I like, except washing the dishes. 
That’s just plain drudgery. But it has to be done and I 
do it. I surely don’t run my life on any interest basis, and 
I don’t believe in it for children. I do disagreeable things 
because I must, and I believe in making children do dis- 
agreeable things while they are young, so that they’ll learn 
to do them when they are grown.”’ 

“You say washing dishes is disagreeable. Why do you 
do it?” 

“Why do I do it? Why! Why, surely you don’t mean 
that I should leave my dishes unwashed! The question is 
absurd. I couldn’t respect myself nor ask anybody to 
respect me if I let the dishes go unwashed. Besides I couldn’t 
eat from unwashed dishes. No, I want them clean; that’s 
why I wash them.”’ 

‘““Haven’t you given us just the clue we were seeking? 
You wish clean dishes, and wish this so much that you are 


146 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


willing to go to the trouble of washing them. Isn’t this 
after all the doctrine of interest? Isn’t it your interest in 
clean dishes that makes you do the disagreeable washing 
up? If you had no such interest to impel you, you wouldn’t 
do this disagreeable thing. And the illustration is typical. 
Whenever you find any one, except, apparently, an ascetic, 
doing a disagreeable thing, it is because there is beyond the 
disagreeable thing some interest that pulls him. He cares 
so much for this interest that he is willing in its behalf even 
to undergo the disagreeable matter intervening. You do then 
live on the basis of interest in spite of your brave words.” 

‘What does this tell us about educating children?” 

“Much. It tells us that we should seek for our children 
challenging interests — not the easy, merely amusing ones, 
— but interests that grip and stir, yes, and those that in- 
volve difficulties also, so that our children may among other 
things have practice in striving in the face of difficulties. 
The difficulties must, of course, be adjusted to their strength. 
It is overcoming that on the whole educates. If our children 
are to grow in persistence, success is as a rule necessary.” 

‘Do you seriously mean that our children will get suffi- 
cient discipline, I mean the right kind of discipline, from 
working at matters that interest them? Have 
you sufficiently considered the proportion of 
uninteresting work in the world?” 

“Tf you will understand that the matters of interest shall 
involve dificulties, then I answer ‘Yes.’ That is what I 
mean, and I mean it very seriously. You wouldn’t accuse 
Professor Thorndike of ‘soft pedagogy,’ would you? Here 
is something of his that I read the other day: 


Interest and 
discipline 


‘The discipline from enduring the disagreeable seems to be 
far outweighed by the discipline from working with an in- 
terested will along lines that fit one’s abilities.’ ” 1 


1 Teachers College Record, 25:143 (March, 1924). 





INTEREST 147 


“You make out a pretty good case, I must admit. But 
there is one question yet: How can we make things inter- 
esting? I mean school subjects, really necessary yaring 
things like the multiplication tables and spelling. things 
They are not in themselves interesting. What anteresung 
shall we do?” 

‘The question is as good as the answer is difficult. There 
are many factors involved. First of all, if our psychology 
of mind-set and readiness be accepted, we cannot really 
make things interesting. Anything is interesting according 
to the degree that it belongs with an aroused mind-set, 
either as end or aim of the mind-set or as means felt to be 
necessary to attaining that end. But for such interest to 
take place, the aggregate of S— R bonds must already be 
there to be aroused. All we can do is to stimulate what is 
there.’’ 

“Well, you can say that if you wish. But you know as 
well as I that there is a great difference, say, in lecturers. 
One man will make a subject interesting (I am obliged to use 
these very words); and another, try as he will, cannot inter- 
est his hearers. The audience may be the same and the 
topic may be the same. The difference is in what the lec- 
turers do. One makes the subject interesting and the other 
doesn’t. How then can you say that we cannot make a 
thing interesting? It can be done. I have seen it done and 
so have you. It is done or not done every day. I am not 
just talking words; I am talking facts, and you know iE 

“Yes, you are talking facts, but I stick also to what I 
said. The only way to ‘make’ a thing interesting is to give 
it a chance to arouse some interest already present in the 
- mind or, better, in the nervous system. Go back to our 
' psychology. There must be present in the nervous system 
the proper aggregate of S— R bonds before the stimulus 
ean take effect, i.e., before there can be stimulation to 


148 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


action. The resulting action is the responding of the R. 
The interest, as a matter of S > R structure, must be present 
in the nervous system before it can be aroused to activity. 
Take your two lecturers. They address the same auditors. 
One interests, as you say. The other doesn’t. The differ- 
ence is that the successful lecturer so presents the subject as 
to stir what was all the time there to be stirred. The 
unsuccessful lecturer does not know how to disclose the at- 
tractions of the subject or to organize these so as to arouse 
those responses of thought and emotion and action-tenden- 
cies which, when aroused and active, we call interest. It is 
after all a disclosing of attractions, a presenting of stimuli. 
And this is essentially what we mean when we speak of 
making a thing interesting.”’ 

“Does this have any bearing on curriculum construction?” 

“Tt has a very great bearing. The main business of curri- 
culum making is two-fold — first, to know what interests, 
native or acquired, lie available in the child 
nature; second, to know how these may be 
stimulated, guided and directed so as to bring 


Interest and 
curriculum 


growing. One main part of curriculum making is to 


know and stir interests that otherwise might lie dormant. 


We must think of all stirring to action as an appeal to what 


is present as S— R in the mind and character of the person. 


Most people get into trouble by choosing first what children - 


should learn, then hunting about for the best way to teach — 
it. If this subject-matter so chosen in advance does not 
correspond to the child’s present active powers, naturally | 
there is trouble. In the older days people said of such cases : 
that human nature is naturally depraved and that we need _ 


not expect desirable subject-matter to correspond to child 


nature. They accordingly reduced their subject-matter to _ 
what could be assigned for learning (mostly memorizing) — 


under penalty. In that day, school was worse than a dull 


; 
, 
] 


; 
‘ 


$ 


INTEREST 149 


place. Switches were much in evidence. When we examine 
the subject-matter of that day, we don’t wonder that chil- 
dren had to be whipped. Later there came kinder methods, 
rivalry and prizes, and also some modifications of subject- 
matter. Much later a doctrine of interest was preached, 
but it was still likely to be a doctrine of making things 
interesting. That is, the old subject-matter was assumed, 
and interest was used as a teaching device. ‘That people 
learn better when interested was seen to be true. ‘“There- 
fore,’ it was said, ‘interest the children in what they are to 
learn.’ In this way ‘sugar-coating’ was offered as a sub- 
stitute for punishment, and people divided into two camps, 
one favoring the ‘soft pedagogy’ of sugar-coating (‘inter- 
est’, they called it) and the other the hard pedagogy of 
coercion (‘effort,’ they called it).”’ 

‘‘Isn’t this what Professor Dewey refers to in his ‘law- 
suit’ between ‘interest’ and ‘effort’?’”! 

‘‘Yes, and then he goes on to say that both are wrong, 
and in place of both offers the doctrine that interest and 
effort are alike the natural accompaniments of healthy 
activity meeting normal difficulties. We use the term 
‘interest’ when we think of the emotional warming up to the 
end in view. We use the term ‘effort’ when a challenging 
difficulty has been met, and the self still persists in going 
forward in spite of the naturally discouraging effect of the 
hindrance. Interest and effort are thus but two aspects 
of the same on-going activity.” 

‘This all sounds very well, but I still don’t see how we 
can avoid spoiling children. Why don’t you tell us how to 
manage?”’ 

‘“The answer has in good part been given. We get our 
best discipline ‘from working with an interested will along 
lines that fit one’s abilities.’ Education is concerned to get 


1 The reference is to Interest and Effort in Education, Ch. 1. 


150 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


going in children such activities as (a) evoke work with an 
interested will, (b) lie along lines that fit their abilities. To 
these I should wish to add a third, or rather make explicit 
what was probably implied, (c) that the work, while begin- 
ning and remaining within the child’s interest, should still 
always reach out beyond the past achievement of the child. 
If these three conditions are met, interest and effort will 
take care of themselves, and growth will ensue.” 

‘“‘But I still don’t see how you avoid spoiling. How are 
you going to get ‘work with an interested will’? I say you 
can’t start out on that basis without spoiling the child. If 
you keep trying to interest the child—to amuse him — if 
you continually ask him whether he chooses to do this or 
prefers to do that, if you keep forever deferring to his wishes, 
you are bound to spoil him. Your start is wrong, and the 
result is bound to be wrong.” 

“Tf what you say were what I propose to do, I should 
agree with you. But you fundamentally misrepresent my 
position, and at the same time ignore the essen- 
tial nature of childhood. Children when awake 
are inevitably and incessantly active. They 
will set up ends. They will strive to attain these ends. 
To do merely nothing is impossible with them. To keep 
children from activity, to make them do nothing, is a 
foregone failure, and is, moreover, irritating to them in the 
degree that it succeeds. We start then not with a child 
waiting to be amused, but with one incessantly active. 
Only a child already spoiled or already starved into inac- 
tion waits to be amused. It is opportunity they crave, 
opportunity to receive stimulation and opportunity then to 
respond. It is our business to supply or perhaps better 
allow both, and then give the more promising of the child’s 
active stirrings a chance to go ahead. You assume or 
pretend to assume that the child is essentially inactive, 


Children al- 
ways active 


INTEREST 151 


that he will do nothing, or at any rate nothing good, unless 
we either coax him or coerce him. This we know is not 
true. Your essential premise is false.” 

‘‘Granted for the sake of argument that the child is in- 
cessantly active, you still don’t show how you will avoid 
spoiling him. If you allow him to do just what he wishes 
to do, you will spoil him. If you refuse to let him follow 
his wishes, you won’t get the ‘interested will’ or the favor- 
able mind-set, and so, on your own account of affairs, you 
lose what you seek. Take either horn of the dilemma and 
you fail. Either you spoil the child or, according to your 
ideas, he doesn’t learn.”’ 

- “No, you are again wrong. What I essentially seek is 
not that the child shall do what he wishes, but that he 
shall wish what he does. The difference be- y,,, arotted 
tween these may not seem very great, but if I selfishness 
act wisely, it is sufficient to prevent spoiling. is acquired 
Let us look more closely at this question of spoiling. What 
is it? We discussed it once before [page 58]. Spoiling is 
essentially fixing the habit of selfishness. The child learns 
to consider only his own wishes. Since all voluntary ac- 
tivity springs out of one’s wishes, there is abundant oppor- 
tunity for any one to become spoiled. What can prevent? 
Our old rules must guide: ‘Practice with satisfaction’; 
‘Let annoyance attend the wrong.’ Each occasion of 
choice where others are involved is an occasion for learning 
spoiledness or its opposite, and this holds of you and me 
as well as of children. I have known some grown men, 
otherwise and previously good, to be spoiled by indulgent 
wives. Itis simply a matter of deciding with or considering 
the rights and feelings of others or deciding without doing 
this. If any one practices ignoring others’ feelings and re- 
mains satisfied in so doing, this ‘practice with satisfaction’ 
will spoil him.”’ 


152 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘Do you mean to say that considering the child’s interest 
doesn’t lead naturally to spoiling?”’ 

‘““That’s exactly what I mean, or rather that it need not 
do so. The final question is whether we can give children 
opportunity to decide things and still not spoil them, not 
make them selfish.” 

“Tf you put it that way, isn’t the opportunity of making 
decisions necessary for acquiring unselfishness? How can a 
child learn unselfishness unless he practices unselfishness? 
And how can he practice unselfishness unless he practices 
choosing, holding before his mind the different alternatives? 
It seems to me that your opponent’s argument in the end 
turns against him. It proves a boomerang. Isn’t it so?” 

‘‘Partly so, yes; but we must be fair and face the whole 
situation. The old way was (in theory) to deny the child 
the chance to practice choosing. He was too young to 
choose, they said. His parents or teachers would make all 
How the old the necessary decisions for him. In so far as 
way avoided this worked he formed habits along two lines: 
selfishness first, of obedience, second, of doing the specific 
things he was told to do. So far as this was all, he prac- 
ticed neither selfishness nor unselfishness of choosing, since 
he didn’t really choose (except that acquiescence is a limited 
kind of choosing). However, a negative sort of good was 
accomplished. He did fail to practice outwardly selfish 
acts (as obedience to another is not selfishness and as his 
elders presumably directed courses not selfish for the child), 


and in so far he was shut off from the chance to build ~ 


outward habits of selfishness. But the inner attitude could 
not be constrained and he may have been building inward 
opposition to much of what was commanded.”’ 


‘But what about the boomerang? I still believe that | 
the argument recoils. In their commendable zeal against — 


spoiling, the advocates of the old way cut off the chance to 





INTEREST 153 


build unselfishness. Isn’t it true that if children don’t 
practice choosing, they cannot be building intelligent un- 
selfishness? I can’t see it any other way.” 

“Ves, I think you are right. But isn’t there still another 
side to this question? Suppose we take your words used 
a while ago, and agree on the policy that children shall 
‘wish what they do,’ don’t you think we shall make them 
soft? People, if they can, always choose the easy course. 
Where then does discipline come in? I recall what you 
quoted from Thorndike, but I just don’t see it. People 
don’t choose the hard, they choose —if they can — the 
easy. Then what becomes of strength of character?”’ 

“There are two things to be said. First, young people 
do not choose merely what is easy to them. Have you 
never heard boys daring each other to do this Peosierde tot 
or that dangerous or difficult or even painful always choose 
thing? Why they like nothing so well as to ekeee) 
undertake something that has hitherto baffled them. 
Speaking generally, I believe that all strong, vigorous people, 
especially the young and ambitious, are more attracted to 
experiences that challenge their best than they are to the 
easy and certain lines of action. That’s one thing. The 
other is that any interest worthy the name is almost sure 
to involve difficulties. The determination to attain the 
goal in view will carry one through great difficulties. And 
if the hindrance be not too great or too monotonously pro- 
longed, its very difficulty is a challenge. It actually serves 
to increase zeal. In both these ways people do, because of 
their very interest, face difficulties.” 

“Then you conclude that your doctrine of interest does 
not lead naturally to spoiling?” 

“T most certainly do. There is danger of spoiling in it, 
just as any sharp tool is more dangerous than a dull one, 
but a sharp tool will accomplish more. So my doctrine of 


154 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


interest has in it possibilities of character building not 
otherwise to be secured.”’ 

“You claim then that your doctrine of whole-hearted, 
interested endeavor makes rather for than against strong 

moral character?”’ 
Arey ati “‘T most assuredly do. The argument is on 
for strong our side. Strong moral characters practice in- 
pene hibitions, but these are best acquired in con- 
nection with strong positive interests. Mere 
inhibitions never built a strong character. Strong charac- 
ter is mainly positive.”’ 

“Tf you stress child decisions so much, why have a 
teacher? Have you left any place for a teacher?”’ 

‘“‘T most certainly do have a place for the teacher, a 
definite and an abiding place. The teacher guides first in 
the making of choices and second in the pur- 
suit of the aim. Of course if need be the 
teacher will command or refuse as occasion 
demands. But stimulation and guidance are the teacher’s 
more constructive functions. I like to think too of the 
teacher as a builder of morale. Each school 
can have its morale, and, well built, it is a most 
precious heritage. So also is there a class 
morale and there is an individual pupil morale. Morale 
implies both habit of outward conduct and inner attitude 
towards this. I should like many habits and attitudes 
built that put the common good above mere individual 
interest, and others that demand persistence as long as 
it is wise to persist.” 

‘“How are these things to be built?” 

“There are no ways but the old ways: 
‘Practice with satisfaction,’ ‘Let annoyance 
attend the wrong.’ The children must practice, outwardly 
and inwardly, putting the common good above mere selfish 


Place of the 
teacher 


Place of 
morale 


How morale 
is built 








INTEREST 155 


interest. If they fail, then regret for such failure should 
attend. But note you: It is practically impossible to get 
the right practice and the right satisfaction or annoyance 
except through interest.”’ 

‘“Yes, and there’s the rub. You can’t build interest 
without practice and you can’t get practice unless you al- 
ready have the interest. So you are caught; either you 
already have what you want or you can’t get it. That’s 
where I say your interest doctrine breaks down. You have 
to call in the parent or teacher to issue a command, else the 
children never take a higher step.” 

‘“Not so fast. Let’s see if we are so hopeless as you say. 
Is it not true that interest in an end will to some degree 
extend itself to means?’’ 

‘“‘T don’t quite understand. [Illustrate it.” 

‘“Tmagine a mother with a child dangerously ill. Is she 
interested in railway time-tables or other plans for a trip?”’ 

“Not at all, if she is the right kind of mother. , 

You couldn’t persuade her to leave home.’’ mashed rene he 

‘Oh, Iam not so sure. Suppose the doctor 
recommends a change of climate for the child. If so, she 
will at once be interested in where to go and how to get 
there. Her interest in her baby will make her interested 
in the trip necessary to his recovery.” 

‘‘Ts the mother of a well baby interested in any other things 
for the baby’s sake — things she used not to be interested in?”’ 

‘‘Indeed she is. I have seen many a young woman made 
over. Before the baby came her interests were only danc- 
ing or cards or the theater; now you can hardly get her to 
leave home, and she studies food values and the sterilization 
of bottles, not to mention infants’ clothes, go-carts, or rattles. 
Yes, anything that affects the baby is interesting to her.” 

‘Then interest in end does extend itself to means?” 

‘“Indeed, yes.”’ 


156 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘And does she practice new things?”’ 

“Yes. I knew a young mother who could never bear to 
sew for herself or anyone else; but when her baby came, it 
was different. She sewed for him as if she were born for 
the work.” 

‘‘And did she become interested in sewing?” 

“This particular woman did. She found out she had 
more of a gift than she had thought. As her husband, 
being merely a college instructor, had a small salary, she 
made most of her own-clothes thereafter and was proud 
of her success. In fact she became a kind of authority 
on the subject in her young circle.” 

‘Let’s see now if we can not find a kind of progression 
in this.”’ 

‘Nature gave this woman a potential love for babies and 
sufficient abilities to enable her to learn to choose food values, 
sterilize milk bottles, make clothes; but up to marriage 
none of these possibilities were realized. Am I right?” 

Ly acs 

‘“‘And the coming of the baby awoke her mother love, and 
that, apart from any interest inherent in them, made her 
studyand learn food values and practice scientific care of 
milk bottles?” 

‘Yes, and made her make baby clothes.” 

“It was her interest in baby then that made her practice 
making baby clothes?”’ 

“Yes, that’s true; and success with baby clothes showed 
her she could sew. Success and a desire to economize made 

Ms her try to make her own clothes. First she made 
aa aaa over some of the clothes she had when she was 
mutually married, and from that she branched out into 
steghe Seine more ambitious schemes.” 

“It seems then that first of all nature supplies 
a potential interest. Then some exigency of life stirs this to 


INTEREST 157 


activity. The pursuit of this aroused activity involves new 
allied lines of practice. This practice in turn builds (arouses 
and fixes) new interests, which in their turn lead to more 
practice and more interests — and so on indefinitely. Am I 
right?” 

‘““Yes, that’s the way of life.’ 

“Then we are not caught by the fact that interest depends 
on practice and practice depends on a prior interest?”’ 

‘“No, I see how it worked in this case. But suppose you 
had no interest to begin with. In that case I don’t see what 
you would do.” 

‘‘Nor do I. Show me a person who has no interest to begin 
with and Ill freely admit I shouldn’t know where to begin 
with him. But where ever was there a normal and healthy 
child who was not full of interests?”’ 

“T now see why you insisted that children are always 
active. It gives you the starting point.” 

‘Exactly so, and there is no other.”’ 

“Do you mean that education is exactly a succession of 
interest, new practice, new interest, still further practice, 
still new interest, and so on forever?” 

“That’s just what I mean — that, with wise pincer 
teacher guidance.” interest, 

‘‘ And you wish in developing such a succession Hh fragt ae 
to stay always within the realm of interest?”’ 

‘“That’s what I wish, and I believe that in the degree I 
can stay always within the realm of interest, in that same 
degree do I secure conditions favorable for learning.”’ 

‘““TDoesn’t the fact of indirect interest help us here?’’ 

‘“You mean that it increases the range of interest? Yes, 
that is a very good idea. You are quite right.” 

“T don’t understand. What do you mean by indirect 
interest? Is there a direct interest, and if so what is the 
difference?”’ 


158 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“By direct interest we mean the condition that exists 
when a person is really interested in a thing without asking 
or thinking why he is interested. The mother 
Pears cial is interested in her baby’s health in this way. 
She just is, that’s all there is to it. In like man- 
ner is a little girl interested in playing with her doll. There 
is no why about it. But when the physician recommended 
a change of climate, then the mother became interested in 
mountain resorts and railroad schedules, because these things 
had to do with her baby’s welfare. Her direct interest in 
the baby so extended itself as to give an indirect interest in 
these other things. Things uninteresting in themselves 
become interesting (indirect interest) because of their bear- 
ings on things that are interesting in themselves (direct 
interest).”’ 

“Then you mean that around each direct interest there is 
a wide region of possible indirect interest?”’ 

“Yes, get the direct interest going strongly and it will 
reach out, often far out.” 

‘And this is the enlarged interest range?” 

TAN Aree 

“May not an interest that begins as an indirect interest end 
by becoming a direct interest? The young mother who be- 
came interested in sewing as discussed above is an example 
of what I mean.” 

“Quite so; and, in fact, each new practice begins nor- 
mally as an indirect interest.” 

‘“May we now have a summing up of what we have 
covered?” 

‘There is not so much to be said. Interest and effort are 
normally and properly but different ways of describing 
action that is going forward under a definite 
mind-set. We call it interest when we think of 
how the person warms up to the object upon which the mind 


A summary 


INTEREST 159 


is set, how he feels about it, how he values it. We call it 
effort when we think of the tendency of the set mind to push 
ahead in spite of hindrance. So much for definition. 

‘We value interest and effort then just as we value mind- 
set. Each term indicates a condition of the organism favor- 
able for efficient action — success is more likely to result; 
favorable also for that complicated kind of action which 
demands learning — learning is more certain to be called 
for; and favorable finally for the learning process itself — 
learning of a higher kind and degree is more likely to take 
place. 

‘With interest, just as with any keen-edged tool, for those 
who know not how to use it, there are dangers; but without 
it only bungling work can be done —no masterpiece of 
teaching is possible. 

“The criterion for judging good from bad interest is as 
always whether fruitful growth takes place. To exercise 
an interest and yet not grow is to yield to indulgence. For 
best growth three things should concur: a gripping interest, 
a challenge from the situation for the best effort that in us 
lies, and eventual success. From these three come growth. 
Social situations and wise guidance are necessary if the 
growth is to be along best lines. 

‘All these put together make up what we may call the 
doctrine of interest.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Dewey — Interest and Effort in Education, pp. 16-60. 
Woopworti — Dynamic Psychology, pp. 100-104. 
THORNDIKE — Principles of Teaching, pp. 54 ff. 
James — Talks to Teachers, Ch. 10. 

Dewey — Democracy and Education, Ch. 10. 


CHAPTER XI 
InrEREST — Continued: Tur SELF AND INTEREST 


‘‘Eiver since our discussion last week I have been wonder- 
ing about something I read in Thorndike — that the ‘mere 
decision to accept certain work as interesting 
improved it.’!” 

“T don’t see anything strange about that. 
It fits exactly with what we have been saying. Readiness 
and set will explain the better learning.”’ 

“Yes, I see that; but I was comparing this statement 
with certain statements of Dewey’s to the effect that in 
interest ‘the self is concerned throughout,’ that genuine 
interest means that a person has identified himself with a 
certain course of action.2” 

‘But I still don’t see the difficulty. All these statements 
seem to me to tally exactly with all we have been saying. If 
one has a sufficiently unified mind-set, one will feel himself 
identified with the course of action in which he is interested.” 

‘‘It is the self, the notion of the self involved in it all that 
concerns me. The self is concerned throughout. The self 
accepts certain work as interesting. In interest one identi- 
fies himself with a course of action.” 

‘“You are right, even if the others don’t see it. There isa 
question here about the self. In any case of interest the self 
is involved. It is hard to understand, but it is there. In 
class last summer I ran across the same insistence on the 


The self and 
interest 


1 Educational Psychology, Vol. Il, p. 353. The statement is quoted from 
Ebert and Meumann. 
2 Interest and Effort in Education, pp. 15, 43. 
160 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 161 


self. Coercion was said to be choice ‘external to the self’ 
and there were many other things like this. It was interest- 
ing though. I remember a discussion by the class as to 
whether this ‘identification of the self’ in interest is a literal 
or figurative use of the word identify. There was a keen 
division. I thought ‘literal’ won out.” 

“Well, I must be stupid or otherwise wrong-minded, but 
I don’t see what you are talking about. Self and identify 
seem to mean something quite different to you from what 
they do to me. Suppose a little girl is interested in a doll, 
does she identify herself with it? How can you say she 
thinks she is ne, hel or is the same thing as the doll? To 
me it’s nonsense.’ 

‘“‘T wouldn’t say she thinks she is the doll or the same thing 
as the doll. That would be nonsense. I say she identifies 
her self with dressing the doll or with whatever else she 
wishes to do with the doll.” 

‘“That’s not quite so bad, but I am still puzzled.” 

‘“‘Couldn’t we take up this question of the self and see how 
interest is related to it? I believe it would heip us straighten 
out some other things.” 

“T should be glad to do so, but we must remember at the 
outset that a single word like ‘self’ when standing alone may 
trouble us more than whole phrases like ‘identification of the 
self with,’ or ‘choices external to the self’.” 

“T wish I could follow you people. Any notion of ‘choices 
external to the self’ is beyond me. What can such a phrase 
mean?” 

- “J think I understand that. Suppose a boy 
has planned with other boys to go fishing on 
Saturday and his father, who is old-fashioned in his manage- 
ment of the boy, says: ‘No, you must stay at home and weed 
the onion patch.’ And when the boy demurs, the father, 
being, as was said, ‘old-fashioned,’ replies: ‘You'll stay; it 


The self and 
choosing 


162 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


is for you to say whether you will also get a whipping.’ Sup- 
pose now the boy decides to stay without the whipping, 
will you say he chooses so to stay?” 

‘‘T hardly know what to say. In one sense he chooses. 
In another he doesn’t.” 

‘‘Now that’s the uncertainty of meaning we wish to clear 
up. I heard an interesting discussion last summer on that 
point. The words hope and fear were used to mark off what 
is ‘internal to the self’ from what is ‘external to the self.’ ”’ 

“Your meaning is a bit hazy, but I think I under- 
stand it.” 

‘Let me see if I understand you. As we face the future 
and its possible happenings, we hope some things will happen, 
we fear others will happen. If it is a question of choosing, 
we choose those we hope for, and we reject or choose not to 
have happen the ones we fear.”’ 

‘Yes, and those we choose in hope are thus ‘internal to 
the self,’ and those we reject in fear are ‘external to the 
self.’ ”’ 

“That seems all right, but what about ‘choice external 

to the self’? That sounds like a contradiction.” 
Chole “Contradiction or no, it expresses a fact. 
externalto Go back to the boy with his fishing plans and 
ae the onion patch. The fishing plan was ‘in- 
ternal’ to his self?” 

‘Yes, that’s clear. He hoped to go.” 

“And the weeding the onion patch on that Saturday morn- 
ing was ‘external’ to his self and so also, of course, was a 
whipping. But as between weeding without a whipping 
and weeding after a whipping he chose the former as the 
lesser of the two evils.” 

‘Yes, that too is clear.’’ 

“Then by the phrase ‘external choice’ or a ‘choice 
external to the self’ we mean where one does choose the 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 163 


lesser of two evils both of which are external to the self, 
both of which one if left to himself would reject.” 

“The words ‘if left to himself’ tell the same tale, do they 
enot:”’ 

“Yes, and so do the words ‘identify one’s self with.’ 
One really identifies one’s self only with those activities 
which one chooses in hope. In such a choice the willed 
activity seems in a very true sense to be ‘internal’ to the 
self, somehow a part of the self.” 

“Then if I understand you, coercion, if effectual, means 
in fact an ‘external choice,’ a choice external to the self.” 

‘Yes, that’s the way I understand it.” 

‘“‘T have heard a person say he was ‘torn within.’ What 
does that mean from this point of view?” 

“Tt, too, fits in here. Let us illustrate. Suppose John 
has joined a poultry club and his broilers are coming on 
finely. He is tremendously interested. There 
is no question about it: he has identified himself thas ma 
with the undertaking. Being, however, a boy 
and having other interests, he plans in company with 
other boys to take a fishing trip on a certain Saturday. 
When the morning comes and he is about to start, he learns 
to his dismay that roup has very suddenly appeared among 
his chickens. What shall he do? The fish are said to be 
biting finely, the bait is all dug, the boys are expecting 
him. But his broilers —can he leave them even for one 
day’? He is indeed ‘torn within.’ One interest says ‘Go,’ 
the other says ‘Stay.’ Both are internal. The choice is 
tragic, but must be made. He decides to stay.” 

‘“‘And you call this an internal choice?”’ 

“Yes, the motivation was within, so we call the choice 
internal. True enough the roup is ‘external,’ and for a 
minute or two John felt so keenly its externality that he 
was angry with it and almost inclined by association to 


164 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


be angry with the chickens. But this was only for a mo- 
ment. His good sense at once reasserted itself. Getting 
angry would do no good. The situation must be accepted. 
There was no other way out of it. He must accept the 
situation as a fact and act upon it, else irreparable damage 
would be done to his chickens.”’ 

“It seems to me that you have now brought in the 
doctrine of continuity.” | 

“What do you mean? The doctrine of continuity? I 
don’t recall that we have ever met it before.” 

‘Perhaps not the word, but you have met 
the fact often. What I mean is this: Hope and 
fear perhaps seem at first glance absolutely opposed, with 
no middle ground between them; and the same with 
‘things internal’ and ‘things external’ to the self. Before 
we think closely, everything would seem to be either inside 
or outside and that’s the end of it. So it seemed at first 
with choices external and choices internal. But now it 
appears there are degrees. Some choices are more external 
or more fully external, more internal or more fully or com- 
pletely internal. Is it not so?” 

‘Certainly, it is so. If that is what you mean by con- 
tinuity, then by all means, yes. Life presents such facts 
and we must recognize them. I should like to begin on it 
right now.” 

‘“How? What do you mean?” 

“IT mean the notion of continuity. Let’s see what it 
means. Perhaps an illustration will help. Suppose some- 
time after the roup is conquered John hears of a new- 
fangled brooder. The principle is novel. John doesn’t 
understand it. He asks his father, who, being old-fashioned 
in this also, scoffs at the new brooder and intimates that 
it is merely a city notion, a book-farming affair, which no 
hard-headed person would consider. John accepts his 


The notion of 
continuity 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 165 


father’s opinion and next day scoffs when one of the boys 
in the club mentions the matter. But the new brooder 
won’t down. The farm demonstrator explains it approv- 
ingly. <A boy rival has one and it works well. An intimate 
friend makes one and John observes it at close range. 
John rigs up a small one for himself. It too works. He 
is fully convinced. He remakes all his brooders on this 
principle. He is now an open advocate of the idea.”’ 

“Do you mean us to see how an idea began as purely 
external to John and gradually worked its way in till it 
became fully internal? Is this to illustrate 
continuity?” % 

“Yes, and the same kind of continuity holds. 
of choices. They may range all the way from complete 
rejections to complete acceptances, from rejections so com- 
plete that only fear of the worst conceivable evil could 
make us will them, up to desires so strong that only the 
worst conceivable evil could keep us from willing them. 
Between these extremes of externality and internality our 
choices lie.”’ 

“Ts this after all a matter of mind-set?” 

“Ves, psychologically, it is just that. We have in fact 
already gone over much this same ground when we were 
discussing coercion and learning.”’ 

‘“You used a phrase a moment ago that interested me. 
You said John must ‘accept the situation,’ and you seem 
to connect anger with not accepting the situa- 
tion. Won’t you say a word further about 
this?” 

“Tt too is a notion that came up when we were dis- 
cussing coercion and learning. It has much to do with 
setting up ends and our attitude toward the ends. When 
John was told by his father to stay and weed the onion 
patch, we may imagine his mother as saying: ‘Yes, I know 


ontinuity 
in choices 


Accepting a 
situation 


166 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


it is a disappointment, but I advise you to accept the 
situation and make the best of it.’ And John did. But 
his acceptance was rather outward than inward. An op- 
posed mind-set remained to keep the choice an external one. 
The whole affair was from first to last one of coercion. So 
also later when he faced the question of giving up his fishing 
trip for the chickens; for the moment he could not ‘accept’ 
the situation, and his anger was the sign of rejection. But 
he soon gave up his anger and ‘accepted’ the situation, at 
first not whole-heartedly; but as he found himself succeed- 
ing in his efforts with the chickens his ‘acceptance’ became 
more and more complete.” 

‘This then is another place where we find differences of 
degree.”’ 

‘““Indeed, yes; we find every possible degree from extreme 
rejection to extreme acceptance.”’ 

“It seems to me that all we are doing is to say the same 
thing over again in many different ways; mind-set and 
readiness with opposed mind-set and unreadiness, internal 
to the self and external to the self, choices internal and 
choices external, ‘identification of the self with’ and ‘re- 
jection, acceptance, and rejection.’ ”’ 

“Well, there is much in what you say. They do in large 
measure repeat the same notion. But perhaps it gives us 
different views of the situation.”’ 

‘“What’s the good of it all? I thought we were discussing 
interest. We seem to be mainly introducing more terms. 
Have you forgotten interest?” 

“We are still discussing interest. Much of learning, both 
primary and attendant, depends on the attitude of the 
learner. If he works at a thing, feeling that it 
is ‘external’ to him, foreign to his interests, 
there is much less of readiness for the work. 
He accordingly does it less well and he learns less well both 


Interest and 
learning 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 167 


from his successes and from his failures. Moreover, he is 
less likely to build favorable attitudes in connection with it.” 

‘Granted all that, where does the continuity or the 
matter of degree come in?” 

“In many ways. We may think, for instance, of the 
members of a class as working at a certain thing. They 
will be scattered along on the coercion-interest scale, some 
studying under straight coercion, others under a less degree 
of coercion, others yet with a mild degree of interest, still 
others perhaps with a high degree of interest — in such a 
situation we shall see different learning results according to 
the place on the coercion-interest scale where the learner is 
at work.” | 

‘Might one not move up the scale?” 

‘“Assuredly. A girl might begin feeling that she could 
not learn a certain thing and would not try. Under coer- 
cion she has to try somewhat, and then if she finds that she 
is succeeding better than she expected she will be likely to 
increase in interest (‘go up the scale’) and so learn still 
better.” 

‘Then you do believe in coercion after all?”’ 

‘“No more and no less than I have always said. Imagine 
a scale to represent what we have been discussing. 


C O I 


| | | 


Let C represent a high degree of coercion and I a high 
degree of interest, with O a middle point neither 
acceptance or rejection. Pupils who work down 
toward C will learn less or less well than those 
who work up towards I. This will be true not only of the 
primary learnings, but also of the attendant learnings. 
Only, with these attendant learnings, those learned about 
C may be as strong as those learned about I, but they are 
likely to be unfavorable, while those about [ are likely to 


The coercion- 
interest scale 


168 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


be favorable. Around C we are likely to build attitudes 
against what we are compelled to do; around I we are 
likely to build favorable attitudes for what we work with.” 

“But you evade my question. A while ago you ad- 
mitted that coercion may cause one to move up the line. 
You are now ignoring that.” 

‘““You don’t give me time. I say it may move on up 
the line, not it must move up the line. Coercion may in- 
duce a person to put forth such efforts that he in time 
builds an interest. If this happens and the good all to- 
gether outweighs the evil, then good has resulted. Such 
cases do happen.” 

‘“Then you do believe in coercion?”’ 

‘“‘T believe in coercion when it causes a person to move 
up this line towards I and is the best available way of getting 
him to move up the line. But as a ‘steady diet,’ 
so to say, I think it most unfortunate for one 
to have to live under it.”’ 

“You mean then that coercion cannot be relied upon to 
make a child study regularly?”’ 

“Ves, I mean just that. A régime of coercion that 
merely remains coercion is a failure. The same is true of 
any extraneous motive. As Woodworth says: 


When coer- 
cion is good 


‘Unless you can get up an interest in a system of activities 
you can accomplish nothing in it. Extraneous motives may 
Woodworth bring you to the door of a system of activities, but, 
on direct once inside, you must drop everything extraneous. 
interest ... To accomplish anything in such a task fas 
reading or study] we must really get into the subject, absorbed 
in it, finding it interesting and being carried along by the inter- 
eat! of it.)773 


“ Just what is meant by ‘extraneous’ here?”’ 
‘Anything except a direct interest in the activity itself. 


1 Dynamic Psychology, pp. 70, 71. 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 169 


Curiosity, fear, rivalry, are examples of extraneous inter- 
ests. Doing. this thing as means to anything else as an end 
is a very frequent instance of extraneous interest.”’ 

“Does this mean that direct interest is the best state of 
affairs for accomplishment and that we are not to use 
indirect interest?”’ 

“Tt means that efficiency of learning or of other accom- 
plishment comes best where there is direct interest in the 
learning or in the accomplishment.” 

“T wish we might go back to the self. I want to make 
sure that I have got the right connection between the 
self and interest. Do I correctly understand 
that the self consists of its interests? Is this 
right?”’ 

‘‘From many points of view that is a very useful way of 
looking at it.’ 

“‘Ts such a self or personality born in us? Or is it built 
up?” 

“Born and built both. We are born with a nucleus of 
S—+R bonds. By experience and the learnings that result 
we build new bonds and so gradually build up a more com- 
plex self. From this point of view the self is thus an or- 
ganized aggregate of S— R bonds.” 

““You have brought in the word ‘organized.’ You speak 
of an organized aggregate of S— R bonds. Is this meaning 
necessary? And why?” 

“Organization is a very necessary part of our notion of 
the proper effective personality. Imagine a person whose 
interests were continually warring with each other, where 
no decision of his would stay decided. If this were often 
the case, that person would be neither happy nor eff- 
cient.” 

‘“‘Should we aim then at building personality? Is that 
possible?’ 


The self and 
its interests 


170 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Tt is both possible and desirable. Every time a person 
responds in any way he has in so far contributed in some 
fashion, for good or ill, to his personality.” 

“When you say ‘in some fashion, for good 
or ill,” you mean he may be tearing down or 
building up?” 

ny esi 

“We ought then to study the kinds of personality that 
our children are building?” 

‘‘ Assuredly, yes.”’ 

“What does it mean that the self is always active? 
Haven’t I read that somewhere?”’ 

‘Yes, that is a most useful conception. In 
the past more than now people seemed to think 
that children would never do anything unless 
they were prodded into action or cajoled into it. We deny 
this by saying that the self is always active; that is, that 
human nature always wishes to be doing something — we 
must be occupied. As Thorndike says, mental emptiness 
is one of man’s greatest annoyers.’’! 

‘Yes, and this is what Dewey had in mind when he said 
that the coercion-effortists and the sugar-coating people 
agree at bottom, in spite of their opposition to each other, 
in taking the self to be inert and static, needing to be 
pushed or pulled to get it into action.2 He held, and 
we must agree with him, that the self is essentially and 
always active.” 

‘“T should like to go back to the organized 
personality, and ask what is meant by the 
‘divided self.’ I have heard that phrase, but 
I don’t quite see how the self can be divided. Might one 
person have two selves?” 


Building 
personality 


The self al- 
ways active 


The divided 
self 


1 Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 141. 
2 Interest and Effort in Education, pp. 6-7. 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 171 


‘‘Now you are getting us into difficulties, but I think it 
will be worth while to face the issue. There have been 
instances of double selves. This is generally known as dual 
or double personality. This, of course, is pathological.” 

“Do you mean that two persons lived in one body?”’ 

“Well, something like that. James tells of such a case. 
A man forgot all about himself and his past life and began 
life over again. After a while he forgot this second self and 
its experiences and became again the other self. But of 
course we don’t usually mean any such extreme condition 
as that when we speak of a divided self.”’ 

“Just what do you mean? It all seems hazy to me.” 

“Have you not heard of boys that seem very different 
at home from what they are with the other boys? Jimmy’s 
parents and teachers and all the respectable grown-up 
world in general see him behaving in one fashion, while 
his boy friends see just the opposite. We may if we wish 
call this a divided self. Clearly Jimmy has two more or 
less distinct organizations of behavior, and he changes from 
one to the other as occasion seems to demand.” 

‘“‘Such a life seems to include a sham or pretense, a fraud. 
Is that why you object to it?” 

‘‘That is sufficient reason for objecting to it. But there is 
more besides. Such a life, being split into two more or less 
diverse organizations, lacks the efficiency of one unified life. 
It is likely too not to be a happy life; either self is liable to 
interfere with the other more or less.’’ 

‘“Would coercion tend to build a divided self and is this 
not another reason for objecting to a régime of coercion?”’ 

“Yes, I think so. Fora boy continually to spend his school 
days paying outward attention to school duties while in- 
wardly he is thinking of other things is to build a divided 


1 James — Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, pp. 390 ff. 
Kilpatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 75. 


172 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


self. The learning that comes under such conditions is hurt 
by the division and the boy’s character is likely to be 
lowered in greater or less degree.”’ 

“Would you then set up as an aim that we should build 
in our children unified selves?” 

‘“Most assuredly. A paramount school ob- 
jective should be that a child shall not simply 
grow, but shall grow more and more unified. If 
we include as we must the social demands on each one, we 
might almost say that the moral aim of education is summed 
up in the efforts to build a progressively unified character.” 

“What is meant in this: connection by a ‘higher self’ and 
a ‘lower self’? ”’ 

“It is merely a certain kind of division of self. We all 
recognize some impulses that lead us on to higher and finer 
things. In so far as we follow these we are building per- 
sonalitics integrated on the higher plane. This is to build 
the higher self. But, sad to say, we also recognize some 
impulses that would lead us downward. In so far as we 
yield to these and build ourselves about them, it is the 
lower self we are building.” 

“Did you get that from Freud?” 

‘Indeed, no. I cannot say where I first heard it, but long 
before I had ever heard of Freud, perhaps from the Bible. 
Plato uses it in his Republic.’ 

‘Then you always wish the self to be unified on the higher 
plane.” 

‘Yes, that is what we wish.” 

‘What is meant by the broad self? I seem to have heard 

that phrase. Is there also a narrow self?” 
mae pioad “We can contrast the two. The distinction 
has, as‘I think of it, especial reference to our 
attitudes toward other people. Imagine a mother and her 
1 431A. 


The unified 
self 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 173 


sick child. Are the baby and his welfare ‘internal’ to the 
mother’s self?’ 

‘“Most certainly so, if she is the right kind of mother.” 

“Do you mean that the baby is part of the mother’s self?” 

‘“‘T mean what we said earlier — that all that concerns 
the baby and his welfare is part and parcel of the mother’s 
self, a dearer part too than her own physical body and its 
welfare.” 

‘“Where do the words ‘broad’ and ‘narrow’ come in?” 

‘‘Can you imagine a man so selfish that he thinks first of 
his own bodily comfort and only after that has been satis- 
fied thinks of wife or children? If so, I should say that he 
has a very narrow self. But the mother who will give her 
very life for her baby has, I say, a broader self. Her very 
self is broad enough to include another person.” 

‘“‘Ts this the same thing as selfishness and unselfishness?”’ 

“T think it is. I should say that any man is selfish who 
prefers the demands of his narrower self to the just demands 
of a broader self.” 

“Don’t you think everybody is equally selfish?” 

“‘T certainly do not.”’ 

“But doesn’t everyone seek the course that will give him 
the greatest happiness? This mother, for instance, couldn’t 
get her happiness in any other way than by 
caring for her baby. She is as selfish as anybody 
else only along different lines, better lines, I grant 
you, but still selfish. Everybody is necessarily selfish.” 

‘You ruin the meaning of a very strong word when you 
make all conduct equally selfish. The distinction I wish to 
make is one of fact. What does the mother primarily seek? 
Does she care for the baby because she seeks his welfare or 
because she seeks her own happiness? Remember that the 
baby is near to death’s door. Does the mother think 
primarily about herself and does she seek by caring for the 


What selfish- 
ness is 


174 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


baby to secure her own happiness, or does she forget herself 
and her happiness and seek only the child’s welfare?” 

‘There can be but one answer to that. Any mother 
worthy the name will forget self in doing all she can for the 
child, and will think only of him.” 

“Tf so, then I say she is unselfish, and that we must not 
lose this strong term, this most valuable distinction between 
selfishness and unselfishness.”’ 

‘Do you mean to say that this ‘unselfish’ mother, as you 
call her, is not following the line that pleases her most?” 

“T certainly do not. I affirm that she is following the line 
that pleases her most. And I honor her for having this kind 
of pleasure, just as I should despise her if she did not so feel. 
The difference is not that some do and some do not follow 
out their interests. Everyone does this. The difference is 
in the kinds of interests. The broad self finds its interests 
in serving others; the narrow self is indifferent to others. 
The broad self is unselfish; the narrow self is selfish.” 

‘You were speaking a moment ago of warring interests 
within, and you said that where this is true a decision might 
not stay decided.”’ 

“Yes; why not?” 

‘You don’t mention will. I have all the time thought that 
it was my will that made my decisions. You don’t seem to 
think so, but I am not sure what you do think. 
Do my interests make my decisions or do my 
5 — R bonds make them? In either case, where 
does will come in?” 

‘““Here is where ancient and modern part company. As I 
see it, will is merely an every-day term to express the fact 
that a decision has come after a conflict. The interests, the 
opposing S—R bonds, do finally come together in one 
‘adopted’ line of conduct.” 

‘‘Has organization anything to do with it?” 


What “will” 
means 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 175 


“Most assuredly. Will is strong or weak along a certain 
line according as there is or is not a strong and efficient 
organization among one’s S— R bonds along that line.” 

‘Then will power can be built?” 

“Certainly. To build a unified self is to build ‘will power,’ 
as you call it.”’ 

“Does will power grow from exercise?”’ 

“Ves, it is like all other learning. Exercise with satis- 
faction will build it — that is, along that one line.”’ 

“Now I have caught you at last. You have opposed 
our making children behave or do things — using coercion, 
you call it. You have said that compulsion goercion and 
won’t work. Now you say that exercising will the exercise 
power strengthens it. I agree and I propose to reat 
make my children exercise their wills at whatever I know : 
to be for their good. This exercise of their wills will cause 
these same wills to grow stronger and in the end they will 
thank me. I have felt all the time that in making no 
reference to will you were leaving out the important fac- 
tor. Now I see that I was right. JI remember when I was 
in college that I found philosophy very difficult. For a 
while I slighted it and my moral fiber got flabby. Finally 
I made up my mind that I’d learn that philosophy at what- 
ever cost it might require. It was hard, but I set to work 
and learned it. My moral fiber grew strong. Now I say 
I exercised my will and it grew. What have you to say 
to that?”’ 

“T say just what I have been saying all the time. Your 
hitherto varied and contradictory interests came to terms 
in a decision to learn the philosophy. This coming to a 
decision was exactly a resultant of the working of all your 
variously ready SR bonds. Your ‘will’ in this was noth- 
ing but the action of these bonds in coming to terms among 
themselves so as to work out a line of conduct. Your prac- 


176 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


tice of this in the study of philosophy brought continued 
success that satisfied and so made it easier for this particular 
conduct to take place again and again, each time more 
surely and more firmly. This, as following your original 
conscious decision, is what you call increase in will power. 
I call it improvement in organization of S— R bonds or 
the strengthening of SR bonds. As for coercion, you 
yourself say you made up your mind. I agree, and so I 
deny that it is an instance of what I have been calling 
coercion. What you say illustrates and supports my con- 
tention, not yours. So long as it was mere coercion you 
slighted the work. It is our discussion of coercion and 
learning all over again.” 

‘But didn’t the coercion help me change my mind? 
Was it not a positive factor?” 

‘Possibly so, as I have always said; but the good came 
after you had so changed your mind that you ceased to act 
from mere compulsion.”’ 

“Tf I understand you then, you make the self to consist 
of one’s interests and you insist upon organizing these inter- 
ests so that they will work together better and thus form a 
more unified self.”’ 

“Yes, that is a conception of the self that I have found 
very useful. Of course there are other things to be said 
about the self.” 

‘How do you think of moral education from this point 
of view?”’ 

“In keeping with this, I think of moral education or moral 
growth as consisting, first, in continually adding and re- 
Moral growth fining wholesome interests, and, second, in or- 
and will ganizing the new interests with the old in a 
Paanine progressively better and better organization.” 

‘And does this proceed according to the recognized laws 
of learning?”’ 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 177 


‘““Bxactly.” 

‘And is this training the will?”’ 

“The phrase is a dangerous one, I think, but this is the 
only kind of will training I care to recognize.” 

“How does the question of incentives enter here? I 
remember an old book, White’s School Management, that 
made much of a scale of incentives and demanded that we 
use on each occasion the highest on the scale that would 
work. Is this all out of date or is it still true?”’ 

“My own opinion is that it is still true. As thus used 
an incentive calls into play an interest, and the incentive 
ranks high or low according as the interest 
called into play is counted high or low. Ri- 
valry is thus placed rather low down in the scale, because it 
is not the kind of interest we wish to have loom large in child 
life. From this point of view it, of course, follows at once 
that we wish to exercise the highest type of interests we 
can.” 

‘And exercising an interest builds it up? Is that the 
idea?”’ 

“Ves, as always, ‘practice with satisfaction’ builds. 
Exercising an interest with satisfaction makes it come 
more easily and more firmly to the fore, that is, gives it a 
larger place in the life of the individual.”’ 

“T seem to recall, in connection, a distinction between 
intrinsic and extrinsic incentives. What are they and how 
are they related to this discussion?” 

“These terms are used when we are concerned as to 
what induces one to engage in an activity. Suppose an 
activity is external to the self, then the self will stinsic vs. 
not engage in that activity unless by so doing extrinsic 
it can secure some admitted good that other- eva ie 
wise would be lost or can avert some admitted evil that 
otherwise threatens to come. In such case the good or 


Incentives 


178 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


the evil that induces one to engage in the undesired activity 
is said to act as an extrinsic incentive to action. Something 
outside the activity makes us act. If, however, we suppose 
an activity internal to the self, one that we would choose in 
and of itself, then the incentive so to act is said to be in- 
trinsic. Something in the activity makes us act.” 

“Why then should we be told to prefer intrinsic in- 
centives?”’ 

‘This question raises anew all our former questions of 
coercion and learning. _The answers group themselves per- 
haps under three heads. First, as we quoted 


Why prefer : j : 
intrinsic from Woodworth a little while ago, if we are 
vet hd to be really efficient at anything we must be 


really interested in that thing. Otherwise we shall not 
pay close enough or prolonged enough attention to it to 
do most with it. Nor shall we get the maximum of learning, 
for success will not bring sufficient satisfaction nor failure 
sufficient annoyance. Moreover, when we engage in an 
activity in answer to a merely extraneous and extrinsic 
incentive we are interested not primarily in the activity 
but in the incentive and are accordingly likely to slight the 
activity at the first chance and in any event to pay as little 
attention to it as we can, provided only that we secure our 
real end. If we succeed with the activity, the resulting 
satisfaction may be located not in the activity but in the 
incentive. Whatever learning may result is thus less likely 
to be located in the activity itself than to attach itself in 
some way to the incentive. 

‘“A second reason for preferring intrinsic incentives is 
really contained in the first, but it may well be made ex- 
plicit for our consideration. It is that we are usually much 
concerned to build up in the child an interest in what he 
does. If I am teaching history I shall wish to build up in 
my pupils an interest in history. This will be the best 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 179 


guarantee both of present and future study and of future 
application. But to build an interest one must exercise 
that interest — it is once again ‘practice with satisfaction.’ 
This means that the pupils must practice being interested 
in history and not being interested merely in winning a 
prize or in getting high marks. 

‘The third reason is the idea of the ‘unified self’ discussed 
above. Extraneous incentives easily lend themselves to an 
outward show of pretended attention, while all the time real 
attention is inwardly directed elsewhere. To live this sort 
of life is to build a ‘divided self,’ is to fail to build the 
‘unified self.’ ”’ 

‘When people speak of ‘making things interesting’ what 
do they mean?”’ 

“Many, perhaps most, mean sugar-coating, appealing to 
some sort of extraneous interest or incentive.” 
“Is not this likely to result in ‘spoiling’?”’ 

“fT think it is.” 

“Is the danger of spoiling then a fourth reason for ob- 
jecting to extraneous incentives?’”’ 

“Yes, but I had rather say we have in it two opposed 
dangers connected with the divided self: one, the danger 
of breaking or cowing the spirit; the other, the danger of 
spoiling, of making the child think that his interests alone 
are worth considering. I should wish to avoid both.” 

“Might it not be that an activity entered into on the 
basis of extrinsic incentives could in time come to be sought 
intrinsically? ”’ 

‘Yes, as we have several times already seen, this is pos- 
sible. We may, if we wish, say that this takes place when 
‘associate shift,’ as Thorndike calls it, takes place. We 
can approve this only if, first, the shift does take place, and 
second, if this be in fact the best available means of build- 
ing the interest.”’ 


Making things 
interesting 


180 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“You spoke of prizes and marks a while ago. Do you 
put all such under the head of extrinsic incentives and 
accordingly reject them?”’ 

‘The question is knotty. Let’s feel our way 
along. As they are generally understood and 
used, I think I should say, yes. Marks and prizes are 
extrinsic incentives and should go.” 

‘‘But do all marks stand on the same basis?”’ 

‘“‘T think not. Some of the newer systems so closely 
measure the success of the activity itself as to be for many 
purposes the same thing as success in the activity itself. 
But even here I should wish to say two things: first, I 
am suspicious, as we shall later see [pages 354-58], of 
learning even school skills apart from their life use; and 
second, some people can, even with the closest connection 
of sign with success, still value the sign and care little for 
the real success.”’ 

‘““Do you mean to deny that there are natural incentives?”’ 

‘“‘T certainly do not, but these I think are inherent and 
intrinsic and give but little if any support to a system of 
marks or other artificial prizes and rewards.” 

‘‘Won’t you sum up what we have had to-day? I feel 
a bit puzzled.” 

‘With pleasure. We have been looking at the two no- 
tions of interest and the self from many varied points of — 
view. We have introduced a good many terms, 
some of them a good deal overlapping, be- 
cause they have proved useful in discussing practical edu- 
cational problems. Foremost among these notions has been 
that of the self as active and dynamic, as consisting essen- 
tially of its interests, as accordingly dividing the whole 
world for itself at any one time into two parts, of things 
internal to it and things external to it. This notion of 
internality and externality, on the one hand, allied itself 


Marks and 
prizes 


Summary 


THE SELF AND INTEREST 181 


with previous applications of set and readiness with their 
opposites and, on the other, allowed us to state, more 
neatly, perhaps, certain positions on familiar questions. 
The conception of self has thus been clarified. The notion 
of the unified self should prove one of very great impor- 
tance, particularly as an ideal in the moral realm. In 
connection with it, ‘will’ and ‘will power’ received a new 
and more fruitful definition. Finally, the old doctrine of 
the desirability of intrinsic incentives was restated so as to 
secure new support. In general we seem to have made 
progress in connecting psychology with education and 
ethics by joining more closely the doctrine of interest and 
the psychology of learning with the conceptions of self and 
will. If we have succeeded in doing this, surely the gain 
has been worth the trouble. 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Dewey — Interest and Effort in Education, pp. 1-15, 23-27. 
Kipatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 517. 


CHAPTER XII 
INTEREST — Concluded: Tue InTEREST SPAN 


“T heard a phrase the other day that was new to me — 
‘the interest span.’ I didn’t quite know what it meant. 
Can any of you tell me?” 
Peet clien ‘I know; I heard about that last year at 
summer school. It is this way: A young child 
shifts his interest sooner than an older one. He cannot 
stick to any one thing so long. His interest span is shorter. 
For a very young child, a few minutes suffice; for an older 
one, a few hours; while a still older boy or girl will work at 
one thing for days or even weeks; and a grown person may 
have a purpose that extends years ahead.”’ 

‘What you say is true enough, but I don’t see just how you 
are going to measure such a span. You know I like to be 
exact in my thinking. Is it the same as the attention span? 
Or do you count persistence as holding even after interrup- 
tions?” 

“‘T don’t think it makes much difference how you count 
provided you are consistent with yourself, but I should 
rather say it is the endurance of persistence. I like to think 
of it as the length of time during which a person will pursue 
a purpose.” 

‘“But won’t one person pursue different purposes for dif- 
ferent lengths of time? Do you mean that a person’s interest 
span is shown by the longest pursuit of the strongest pur- 
pose? Or do you mean a kind of average or perhaps a 
distribution of all one’s purposes?” 


‘“Again I say I think it doesn’t matter how you count, 
182 


eS ee ee ee 


THE INTEREST SPAN 183 


provided you follow one method consistently. However 
you take it, the interest span of a child increases with in- 
creasing age and maturity.”’ 

“Ts it just the length of the span that concerns you? I 
should think there are other things more important than 
that.” 

“There are, I think; but what had you in bent 
mind?” along with 

“T was thinking particularly of conscious ee ate 
choice. It seems to me that, in the case of a ribs 
very young child, things just pop into his head or out of it, 
I am not sure which to say, and he sets out at once to do 
them. He doesn’t consider; he can hardly. be said to 
choose.” 

‘You think then that with increasing interest span comes 
an increase in the conscious choice?”’ 

“Yes, but it seems to me that at the very first a child does 
things without having any aim or making any true choice. 
The baby puts the marble into his mouth not because he 
wishes consciously to swallow it or even to see how it tastes; 
he just does it. The results of his experiment may remain 
with him, as when he runs across sugar or salt or a hot coal, 
but he does not mean to experiment. He is simply manipu- 
lative. The sight of any small thing stirs him to this kind 
of action.” 

“And you think choice can come only after the child has 
had experiences and knows what to expect?” 

“Ves, that’s it.” 

“‘T once heard Professor Dewey lecture on this very point. 
So far as I know his remarks have never been printed, but 
as I recall them he reckoned three stages of 
choice: first, when the child didn’t and 
eouldn’t foresee the results of what he was 
doing, when he simply acted at once upon sense stimuh; 


Stages of 
choice 


184 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


second, when he knew what he was about and in a general 
way expected what might happen, but hadn’t considered it 
beforehand, hadn’t deliberated on doing it; third, when 
in the light of experience and expected consequences he 
chose what he would do. The last only is conscious 
choice, true purposing.”’ 

“Tf I understand you, you mean that along with the 
growth of the interest span comes growth in conscious 
choice, in true purposing; and that this growth follows 
Professor Dewey’s three stages?”’ 

‘Yes, that’s it exactly.” 

‘What else would change with the increasing interest 
span?”’ | 

“These three stages had to do with ends, setting up ends 
I mean. Wouldn’t a like growth be seen in the choice of 
means?”’ 

““How?”’ 

“With the first stage, there are no real means — the 
activity is too simple. There are no real ends and no real 
means. With the second, there are some steps leading to 
the end; but I imagine they would come more or less hap- 
hazardly. In the third stage, there would be conscious 
choice of means to attain the consciously purposed end.” 

‘It seems to me that you are merely saying that the child 
is getting older, becoming more mature. Why all this fine 
spinning of steps and stages?”’ 

‘‘Perhaps we are merely telling how the child 
grows older, or how he matures; but is it not 
worth while to see clearly what maturing consists in—for 
example, in an increase of consciousness in the choice of 
ends and means?” 

‘Don’t most people fail to look at the inside of maturing 
and consider instead only the outside?” 

‘What do you mean by inside and outside? I don’t see.” 


Growing 
older 


THE INTEREST SPAN 185 


“Most people seem to separate children sharply from 
adults. Children should grow, of course; but adults are 
already grown, finished, done, completed. Immaturity be- 
longs to children; maturity, to grown-ups. I wish to look 
on the inside of what maturing means and see if twenty-one- 
year-olds (and over) shouldn’t go on maturing and still go 
on maturing as long as they live, at any rate till death comes 
or senile decay sets in.” 

“But is this true? Haven’t we been told recently by 
those who measure intelligence that the average person 
reaches his full mental age at from fourteen to 4... we men- 
sixteen? How then can he keep on growing?’’ tally grown 

“Why not? Anybody but an idiot or moron ™ Bxteroe 
does keep on growing after fourteen or sixteen. The average 
boy or girl at fourteen or sixteen isn’t equal in wisdom to 
the same person at thirty or forty. They do keep on growing 
for a goodly number of years. This I say is a fact, the kind 
of fact that everybody knows to be true and acts on. Of 
course people grow after sixteen.” 

“Must you not say first what you mean by growing?”’ 

‘““Axactly so, and that’s what we are doing. We have 
found, for one thing, that the ‘interest span’ grows after 
the person is fourteen. A man of thirty forms 
on the whole longer-range plans than does a boy 
of fourteen. The plans, too, are more compli- 
cated and the man sticks to them better. Also, we found 
that there is increase of consciousness of choice ‘bath as to 
means and as to ends.” 

“Do you think a person can keep on increasing in con- 
sciousness of choice after he is thirty-five, say?”’ 

‘“‘T see no reason to doubt it. The more we know, the 
more experiences we have organized, the more we have to 
take into account in deciding, the better we may have 
learned that it pays to think.” 


What growing 
means 


186 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Is this the explanation of the old proverb: ‘Young men 
for action; old men for counsel’?”’ 

“There is certainly some connection.” 

“But may not the young men be right? Isn’t there a 
time when we should cease deliberating and begin to act? 
I know some cautious old fellows who think so 
much that they are afraid to do anything.” 

“Yes, depending on the importance and the 
urgency and our knowledge of the matter at hand, there 
does come a time when deliberation should yield to action. 
I should say in fact that deliberation exists primarily to 
further action.” 

‘‘Haven’t you forgotten what we were discussing? You 
seem to have left the interest span. I want to know what 
else changes as the interest span increases. Or have we 
named all the things?” 

‘No, there are still other changes that accompany, though 
most have already been implied. The steps in the typical 
activity become more and more complicated 
as age increases. We take these steps more and 
more in the light of knowledge, and this knowl- 
edge gets more and more precise and reliable. Moreover 
our steps are better planned and better organized. Also, 
we may and should choose both ends and means in the 
light of broader and broader ranges of interest.”’ 

‘These changes seem to be but repetitions or enlargements 
of those that have already been named. They are closely 
connected both with the greater length of span on the one 
hand and with the greater consciousness on the other.” 

‘You are right. I said they had already been implied. 
As stated they are mainly elaborations; but in addition to 
these will come new types of interests. A small boy whose 
boat proves top-heavy will learn with interest that lead on 
the keel will make it stand upright. Later he will ask why 


Deliberation 
and action 


Other signs 
of growing 


| 
i 
§ 
i 
A 





THE INTEREST SPAN 187 


and may be interested to study the principle of the lever. 
Perhaps still later the generalization principle of ‘virtual 
velocities,’ as the old books called it, will appeal to him. 
It is true enough that not everyone develops these more 
pronounced intellectual interests, but almost everyone BO 
some way along this road.” 

“T am interested in the notion of growing. Couldn’t we 
go back to that? It seems to me that what you are really 
doing is to help us to see what growing is, to see what con- 
stitutes the signs or content of growing. Are there yet other 
things that can be named?”’ 

‘There are many other things, too numerous to discuss 
now. They group themselves largely under two heads; 
increase in the content of experience and increase in the 
control over experience.” 

‘Now what are you ‘high-brows’ talking about? I came 
in just in time to hear you say ‘growing,’ ‘increasing content 
of experience,’ ‘increasing control over experience.’ These 
sound like good ‘high-brow’ terms. What is it all about? 
What is the connection?” 

‘We have been trying to think of the good life as one of 
growing continually richer and finer as one gets Growth in 
older. This is what we have called growing, content and 
and I had just said that growing includes at StS 
least the two sides—increasing content of experience and 
increasing control over experience.”’ 

‘“‘TLet me see if I understand you. By increasing control 
over experience you mean that it is of no use to know about 
a good thing unless you can somehow manage to get it. And 
by increasing content you mean that some people get very 
little out of life because they don’t see enough in life. Am 
dorian t i 

‘“‘For a beginning, that will do very well.” 

‘““Well, what has all this to do with teaching? I have to 


188 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


teach grammar and arithmetic and history. I don’t see any 
connection that my work has with anything you have been 
saying. What I want is something to help me teach these 
very necessary subjects to my very unwilling children. Why 
don’t you people who talk so much about studying education 
study the real thing? I want to know some good way to 
teach the use of the decimal point in division and you spend 
your time talking of growing and increasing content, and 
increasing control. It reminds me of the Bible saying. I 
ask for bread and you give me a stone.” 

“I wonder what the children might think if they only 
knew. They too ask for bread and how often we give them 
stones. ‘These unwilling children, are they active?” 

‘Active! They are as active as cats — if I’d let them be, 
but not about grammar or decimal points. A few of them 
like these subjects, but most of them have to be driven. 
Am I wrong? Oughtn’t the children to learn how to use the 
decimal point? Or don’t you people believe in having chil- 
dren learn? Has the verb to learn gone out of fashion?” 

‘Most certainly children should learn. If I have any 
complaint against the old-régime method, it is that children 
under it do not learn.’’ 

“Then why talk so much about growing? I should say 
that growing and learning are two quite different things. 
Trees grow, but people learn. I don’t quite understand you.” 

‘‘Let’s see how matters stand. You say trees grow. Very 
good, and in much the same way do children’s bodies gTOW 
and also their ‘intelligence,’ the thing the psy- 
chologists are now talking so much about.”? 

“And is this intelligence the thing that they 
say is full-grown at about fourteen or sixteen years?” 

aN OS a 

‘‘Do you believe it?” 

“T think in the main they are right.” 


Two senses 
of growing 


= — a 


THE INTEREST SPAN 189 


“But you were talking of another kind of growing.” 

“Ves I was thinking primarily of such growing as means 
more thoughts, more meanings, finer and finer distinctions, 
better ways of behaving, higher degrees of skill, broader 
interests, wider and better organizations — all the things 
that go along with a growing interest span.” 

“Then growing has two meanings?”’ 

“‘T think we may say so.” 

“Does the interest span grow because these added things 
come, or do they come because the interest span grows?” 

‘Until a child is fourteen or sixteen possibly both happen. 
After that time it is mainly (if not entirely) the coming of 
these new things in their various connections that makes 
the interest span lengthen out.” 

‘And it is this second kind of growing that mainly con- 
cerns us?” 

“Yes in it learning and growing mean about the same 
thing.” 

“Ts your last statement quite correct? Do you think 
cramming brings growth of the kind you wish? 
Yet cramming is learning, at any rate as the 
psychologists define learning. What say you?” 

“T know what you mean and I ones agree with you. I 
think there are degrees of learning.”’ 

‘“‘ And so does the psychologist, but you don’t mean quite 
what he means by learning, do you?” 

“‘T think we are concerned with different problems and so 
tend to use words a little differently. The psychologist is 
immediately concerned with laboratory condi- p.,5 meanings 
tions. For him, accordingly, learning largely of the verb 
means acquiring the ability to give back, on he learn’! 
demand, the skill to do anything when a signal is given. For 
the laboratory, this is generally sufficient. But I am con- 
cerned with life, with remaking life, in the young typicallv 


Learning 
and growing 


190 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


but also in grown-ups. I wish not merely the ability to 

respond but also the disposition to respond. For my pur- 

poses a thing has not been sufficiently learned 

his a Hae unless it witt be used when the right time 
comes. CAN is not sufficient.” 

“Witt and can—you puzzle me. Won’t you ex- 
plain?” 

“Certainly. Take a small child and the lacing of his 
shoes. Are we content that he be able to lace his shoes? I 
say no, CAN is not sufficient. Wuuu he do it? I wish learning 
to go far enough to include both can and wit.” 

“And what about growing?” 

“T say that a thing has not been learned — learned for 
life purposes you understand — until it has got over into 
life and to some extent remade it. Then I say the learner 
has grown by that much.” 

“What do you mean by remaking life?” 

“Take the small boy and lacing his shoes. Heretofore, 
mother or nurse has laced his shoes for him each morning. 

Henceforth, he laces his own shoes. His life 
icra is, as a result, different in several important 
respects. Most obviously it is he who now does 
the lacing, not his mother. But much more, he has now 
by this much become independent of mother; henceforth, 
by this much he directs his own life; in this he begins now 
to decide and act of himself and for himself. Self-respect 
is modified; feelings of independence are stirred. Ask the 
mother; she knows. She feels in connection both pleasure 
and pain, pleasure and pride that the boy is progressing, 
pain that he is leaving off his dependence upon her. He is 
ceasing to be her baby. Yes, his life is being remade, 
reconstructed.” 
‘And is this what you mean by growth?” 
‘It is an instance of it.” 


. 





THE INTEREST SPAN 191 


“You spoke earlier of increasing control over experience. 
That is what we see here in this child, is it not?” 
~ “Targely so.” 

‘“‘You also spoke of the increasing content of experience. 
I am not so sure that I see it in this instance.”’ 

‘The increase in content is perhaps not quite so obvious 
as is the increase in control. Yet it means a richer content 
to experience when he has learned all these various things 
from and about lacing his shoe. He sees — either for the 
first time or in a new light — eyelet holes, the two laces, the 
even lacing, the over and under movement of lacing. It 1s, 
moreover, a new content to experience to feel independent, 
to decide for oneself, and to feel self-reliant. He now sees 
times and seasons in a new light. Rising bells, breakfast 
bells, and such things have hitherto been mainly signals 
to his mother. It was she who had to obey them. He had 
only to obey her. Now he has increasing responsibility of 
noting himself these signals and taking account of the lapse 
of time. Yes, even in this very simple case, life has added 
new content.” 

‘Do I understand you to define education in a new way, 
I mean in terms of content and control?”’ 

“Yes, I should wish to think of education as the process 
of continuously remaking experience in such way as to give 
it continually a fuller and richer content and at the same 
time to give the learner ever increasing control over the 
process.’’! 

“Ts this what Professor Dewey meant by saying educa- 
tion is life and not a mere preparation for life?”’ 

“Tt is part of what he meant.”’ 

“T don’t quite see why you said so much at the first 
about the growing interest span. It now seems to me that 
mere length is the smallest part of the matter.” 

1 Dewey—Democracy and Education, p. 89 f. 


192 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘Perhaps it is, but at any rate it is a good and useful 
phrase; and I think it gave us a good introduction to this 
new and richer definition of education.” 

“T begin to see better what you meant earlier about 
bread and stone. I noticed then that you turned them 
exactly about when you replied. You value education as 
it remakes life?” 

‘Yes, as it remakes life here and now, I mean the child’s 
life here and now. I am accordingly not so sure as to our 
Educationis Old formal-lessons, whether they best remake 
the remaking life. I fear they too often postpone remaking, 
ee postpone it to so distant a day that present 
life is starved. The children may be said to be ‘active as 
cats,’ but not about their lessons. What I want is to 
begin with their present child activities as the starting 
point. If we do this I think the activity will then be on 

our side instead of against us.” 

‘Ts not this notion of education very different from the 
one that most people have?” 

‘Yes, and we can only touch on it here; but for a hundred 
years our best practice has been moving in this direction.” 

“T should like to go back for a short while to the inter- 
est span. Could we not think also of an interest 
range?”’ 

‘What have you in mind?” 

“T mean that certain things, such as balls and dogs and 
ponies, are in a boy’s interest range; but that some others, 
such as George Eliot and ‘predestination vs. free will’ are 
not. It is not so much the length of interest span as it is 
the content of present interests.” 

‘That sounds very good to me, but do you mean by 
present interests the interests the boy feels at the moment 
or all the interests he now has, even though some of these _ 
are not now active but are asleep, as it were?” 


The interest 
range 





THE INTEREST SPAN 193 


“Tt is the latter, I think. I was trying to frame a rule 
that in directing education — the real education that you 
have been discussing — we should remain al- Kee within 
ways within the child’s interest range and in- the interest 
terest span.” Verso 

‘“You mean if we are to keep the child’s interest, have it 
work for us so as to utilize all we know of set and readiness, 
then we should, as you say, remain always within the 
child’s interest span and interest range. It seems to be a 
good rule, but of course, in discussing its possible excep- 
tions, we should run into our old dispute about coercion and 
when coercion is to be used. Under some circumstances, 
it might be necessary to give up interest and use coercion.” 

“Yes, that is all true.”’ 

“T am thinking about your new rule. How could I, as 
a teacher of English literature, use it? Does it mean that 
I cannot teach the English classics because yi rature 
they are beyond the interest range of chil- and the inter- 
dren?” est range 

‘“‘Tf they are in fact beyond the children’s present inter- 
est range, I should say, yes, that you ought not to require 
them now.” 

“But if the children do not reach out beyond where 
they now are, how are they to grow? In general I agree 
with you, but I cannot let the present limitations of child- 
hood forever forbid my introducing something better than 
they now value.”’ 

‘“We seem then to be blocked, to be confronted by a 
dilemma: For best learning, particularly in the case of atti- 
tudes and appreciations, we must have interest, we must 
remain within the child’s interest span and range; but if we 
remain always within the child’s present interest range, 
how is growth possible? How can he grow if he doesn’t 
reach out?” 


194 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“You are right. I see no way out of the difficulty 


except to compel the child to learn the new material. I 


think this is one case where coercion is justified.” 

‘But what success can you expect in compelling a child 
to appreciate a poem? How can you compel appreciation? 
Some people are cynical enough to say that the 
best way to kill a book is to use it in the high 
school. I shouldn’t like to agree entirely, but 
there is some justification for the widespread impression.” 

“TI should like to ask whether we really face such a 
dilemma.” 

“What way out do you see?” 

“T think I see two very practical ways out, both already 
referred to in our discussions.”’ 

‘And what are they?”’ 

‘First, that the teacher may disclose interests already 
present but not evident to the children.” 

‘“How? Won’t you illustrate?” 

“Yes, gladly. The children attack ‘Thanatopsis.’ They 
don’t see enough meaning in it. They are not interested. 
The teacher then reads it aloud, commenting here and 
there. It takes on new meaning. It is now interesting.” | 

‘““That’s good. What’s the second way?”’ 

‘It is the use of indirect interest. Things in themselves 
uninteresting may for the time take on a very genuine 

interest. We can become very much interested 
Beare in an activity in spite of the fact that it in- 
range through volves otherwise uninteresting aspects.” 
ee ‘‘T think I see, but will you illustrate?” 
“With pleasure. Moving a heavy stone in 
and of itself may not be interesting. But if some boys are 
building a dam so as to have a pond, they may get very 


Compelling 
appreciation 


much interested in moving this very heavy stone into place 


in the dam. Its very size on the one hand gives it value 





THE INTEREST SPAN 195 


to them and on the other challenges their efforts. Both 
give interest.” 

“You seem conveniently to forget your pious remarks 
about extraneous incentives.” 

“Indeed, I have not. Just watch the boys. The original 
interest in the pond-to-be extended itself sufficiently to 
include making the necessary dam. It is not necessary to 
usk how much of their interest in the making of the dam is 
brought over from the wish for the pond and how much is 
derived from such native interests as contriving, manipula- 
tion, working together, leadership, and all the rest. The 
point is that the pond-to-be at least was the occasion for 
the awakening of a very great deal of genuine interest in 
making the dam. Similarly the interest in making the 
dam is at least occasion for a like interest in moving the 
stone. Watch the boys and see. Such activities can be 
tremendously interesting.” 

‘“‘Tf I understand you, interest in a piece of literature is 
not just one thing, but may be very varied. A class might 
begin working with a poem along one line because of one 
kind of interest, but the successful prosecution of their 
work might involve interesting excursions into many other 
aspects of the poem. Am I right?” 

“That is exactly what I mean.” 

““You say might involve interesting excursions. Do you 
mean it also might not involve such excursions?’’ 

“Ves, there is always chance for failure.”’ 

‘This is very interesting tome. You insist then that the 
most educative experiences are those that begin and re- 
main within the child’s interest span and range?”’ 

“Yas”? 

“But, if I understand you, they must in point of experi- 
ence reach out into new regions?” 

“Ves but still remain within the interest range and span.” 


196 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“And it is the fact of genuine indirect interest that 
makes this possible?”’ 

‘Yes, and this extending of interest so as to include 
necessary related activities enlarges for the time the interest 
range.” 

‘And may this temporary addition to the interest range 
become a permanent addition?” 

“It may well do so. It is a matter of building interests. 
The conditions here described may be called the natural 
conditions for building an interest. [See pages 90-93.] 
They are, I think, the most favorable of all.” 

‘‘Isn’t success a factor in interest building?” 

“Yes, generally the main factor.” 


ae eeice oe Then you would wish to add as another 


eutreenin item that any activity to be approved for 
interest educational purposes should be and remain 
building 


within the range of success. Is it not so?” 

‘Quite so.”’ 

‘This thing grows a bit complicated. Won’t some one 
bring it all together for us?” 

“T have tried to say it to myself this way: In order that. 
an experience may be most truly educative it must, first, 
When an stay within the present interest span and 
experience is range, 1.e., be and remain gripping in interest, 
SRN else we lose the advantage of set and readiness; 
second, it must reach out beyond the hitherto known 
limitations of insight, attitude, and power, else growth 
does not take place; third, in this reaching out into new 
territory, it must still remain within reach of success, else 
discouragement follows, with loss rather than gain of 
ground.” 

‘But suppose my pupils simply are not interested in 
better things. What then? Must I still remain within the 
interest span and range?”’ 





THE INTEREST SPAN 197 


‘So far as I can see, yes. The badness (as you and I 
feel it) of their present case in literature fixes for you at 
once your starting point and your aim. You must start 
where they are; there is nowhere else to start. You must 
try to move them up the line to something finer.”’ 

“‘Ts this starting where the children are and going always 
no faster than they go an illustration of the continuous 
reconstruction of experience?”’ 

“Tt is one illustration of it. Growth as we have been 
discussing it and the continuous reconstruction of experi- 
ence are but two ways of describing the same process.’ 

‘“We have said much about growing and growth. What 
are the signs that growing is taking place, or perhaps 
better, what are the lines along which growth 
should appear?”’ 

‘“There are many ways of saying it. I have 
been trying to say it to myself in this fashion. An experience 
has been educative when the learner has grown (a) in out- 
look and insight, (b) in attitudes and appreciations, and 
(c) in means of control. By growth in outlook and insight 
I mean that he now sees more possibilities and more sig- 
nificances than he formerly saw. He now sxzs better what 
to do. By growth in attitudes and appreciations, I mean 
that he has new interests and values corresponding to his 
broader outlook and deeper insight. He has new things to 
value. Some old things he values in new ways. Having 
different interests and values from formerly he wilt now 
act differently when the time comes. By increase in 
‘means of control’ I have in mind better power of effecting, 
of doing or getting what one sees and wills. The learner 
now CAN do more than formerly. I lke to say that snx, 
CAN, and wi are the lines along which growth can and 
should take place.” 

‘“Won’t you illustrate?”’ 


Lines of 
growth 


198 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“With pleasure. A boy goes fishing for the first time 
and the experience is so managed that he learns from it. 
Afterward, as he passes a stream, he sees possibilities that 
before he did not see. And it is not just vague and gen- 
eral. With fishing in mind he now szzs the possibilities 
of this pool as compared with those shallows. Not only does 
he see differently, but he feels differently. If occasion re- 
quire, he wit act differently. New attitudes and apprecia- 
tions have been built corresponding to the new insights. 
Moreover, he now has made a beginning at skill in the 
matter. He can do more. He can better manage a hook 
and line. He is a different boy. He has grown. His 
experience has been remade.”’ 

“IT wish some one would sum up this afternoon’s discus- 
sion. I feel confused.” 

‘‘As I see it, we began with the notion of the interest 
span, and we saw how this increases with increasing age 
and maturity. We next saw that many things 
change as the length of the span increases; 
chiefly there comes a growing complexity of steps with in- 
crease of conscious attention paid to them. ‘There are also 
differentiations of interests with oftentimes a distinct in- 
crease in those of purely intellectual concern. We next 
took ‘growing’ as a good word with which to describe the 
changes we had already noticed. Then we saw that our 
references to growth and learning were practically two ways 
of saying the same thing. This led to a redefining of learn- 
ing and to the definition of education as a process of con- 
tinuous growth, the continuous remaking of experience in 
such way as to give it an ever richer and finer content and 
to give the learner an ever greater control over it. We 
next considered the interest range and the wisdom of 
staying always within it. Last we got three lines of growth, 
indicated by the three words, sEE, WILL, and can. Does 


Summary 





THE INTEREST SPAN 199 


one now SEE better what to do? Wut he more likely do it? 
Can he better effect it?”’ 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Dewey — Interest and Effort in Education, pp. 35-45. 
Kinpatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 469. 


CHAPTER XIII 
PURPOSEFUL Activity: THs CompLets Act 


‘“We have many times referred generally to purpose and 
purposing, but I think we have said little about a phrase I 
often hear among forward-looking teachers. 
eat I mean ‘purposeful activity.’ Just what is 
meant by purposeful activity and why should 

we wish it?” 

‘Purposeful activity is just what it says — activity full 
of purpose, activity permeated by or directed by a purpose.” 

‘Do you mean any sort of activity, or must it be a manual 
or motor activity?”’ 

“It means any sort of activity that is dominated by a 
purpose. Can’t one have a purpose that is not manual?” 

‘Certainly, I may purpose to compose a poem. ‘There 
isn’t much of the manual in that.” 

‘Why are some people so insistent on the manual or motor 
element here?”’ 

“It is a mystery to me. I cannot answer. All I can say 
is that the manual element need not be present.”’ 

“You don’t mean to deny that with the young child 
manipulation and other forms of motor activity are very 
frequent, and very proper to be encouraged?” 

“Not a bit of it. I agree thoroughly that with children, 
even with older children, motor activity, physical movement 
of some sort, is all but essential to any activity that is to 
prove interesting. But even physical movement, though it 
includes much more than manual activity, need not be 


present in any very obvious sense.”’ 
200 





PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 201 


“Well, why wish the purposeful activity? Why the pur- 
pose? We used to think it sufficient for the child to do as 
he was told. Has that gone out of date?” Why wish 

“T thought we had already sufficiently con- purposeful 
sidered why we wish purposing. You recall our gory 
discussion of mind-set and learning. Set and readiness 
seemed to us the keys to learning.”’ 

“T wasn’t present at the earlier discussions, though I 
understand set and readiness. But what has purpose to do 
with set or readiness?”’ 

“Purpose always includes a mind-set-to-an-end and 
implies consciousness besides. Also it has usually been 
decided upon after more or less of deliberation. And readi- 
ness of course accompanies mind-set — selective readiness, 
I mean.” 

‘““Why say selective readiness?”’ 

“Because in purposing we are ready along certain lines 
favorable to our purpose and unready along others. This 
is the effect of mind-set as we saw once before. What we 
learn depends on this fact.” 

“Vou referred to the element of conscious choice in pur- 
pose. That is why you say that true, full purposing is 
hardly to be expected in the very young, is 1t not?” 

“Ves, but if we think of purpose as the opposite of mere 
dictation and coercion, then we shall wish even the young to 
purpose as best they can at their stage of advancement.” 

‘And you wish this purposing because you think it best 
leads to learning?”’ 

i Viegs! 

‘To you mean the primary learning only or also the asso- 
ciates and concomitants?”’ 

‘We mean all, but I thought we had said this often 
enough already.” 

‘‘But you do insist on purpose because through the ac- 


202 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


companying set and readiness the conditions for learning 
are best met? Am I not right?” 

“Exactly right. This is the main reason. Other things 
being equal, the stronger the purpose the stronger the learn- 
ing that takes place?” 

‘What other reasons are there for wishing the presence 
of a purpose?” 

‘For one thing, success is surer. The stronger the purpose 
the greater the tendency to push ahead in the face of 
obstacles and, accordingly, the greater the likelihood of suc- 
cess.”’ 

“Are you here desiring success for its educational value 
or because you wish to get things done?” 

‘Both. Weare more likely to get things done — and that 
is good, if the things are good — but success has great edu- 
cative effect, besides. The satisfaction of success is a great 
factor in fixing learning.”’ 

“Won't success build good concomitants?”’ 

“Yes; ‘Nothing succeeds like success.” Success builds 
concomitants favorable to the succeeding cause.”’ 

‘Is there still any other reason for wishing the learner to 
have a purpose?” 

“Yes, the presence of purpose is a powerful factor in or- 
ganization. The end in view, being consciously held, helps 

aii to direct each step in the process, so that one 
Organization Ga i ‘ 
from part is joined to another part with a conscious 
purposeful reason. In the end, we see what steps have 
moun ied been successful and what have not, and we know 
what we have done and why. This makes a better unified 
whole than we could have where things have been less 
consciously done.”’ 

‘Will an organization so made be useful anywhere else?” 

“T should think so. An organization made in its natural 
setting is more likely to have natural connections and so is 





PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 203 


more likely to be called into use again when a suitable occa- 
sion arises. The probable handles, or points of contact, 
are more numerous. This I think is one of the great weak- 
nesses of the old teaching. It was mostly done outside its 
natural setting, and had accordingly few handles, few con- 
tact points. A person might be learned in that old sense and 
still find few occasions to use his learning.”’ 

“The phrase ‘natural setting’ seems a goo 
one. Did you invent it?” 

“Indeed, no. I got it from Charters and Stevenson.” * 

“To they not prefer it to your factor of purpose?”’ 

“In a way they do. At least I so understand them.” 

‘“Why do you insist on purpose?” 

“Mainly because I think it is the best single idea with 
which to call attention to the matter of attitude. Iam much 
concerned to utilize the laws of learning, since learning is the 
essence of educaticn. The presence of purpose on the part 
of the learner means the presence of set and readiness. 
When these are present, satisfaction is attached to success 
and annoyance to failure. But satisfaction and annoyance 
are exactly the conditions for best learning.” 

“Ts there any connection between purpose and natural 
setting?’’ 

“Usually there is, though I should not care to urge it as 
important. Purposing is not so likely to be present when an 
enterprise is divorced overmuch from its natural setting. 
But I have another head under which I shall wish later to 
discuss natural setting.” [See page BOL. Tiernan 

‘‘What are the typical steps in a purposeful a purposeful 
enterprise?”’ at 

“T myself reckon four: purposing, planning, executing, 
judging.” 


d Natural 
setting 


1Charters—Curriculum Construction, p. 138. 
Stevenson—The Project Method of Teaching, p. 14. 


204 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“T am not quite sure that I see what you mean; won’t 
you illustrate?” 

“Imagine a girl — her mother away — who sets out to 
get dinner for the family and a guest that her father is 
bringing home with him. She has for some time 
been wishing a chance to prepare and serve, 
‘all by herself,’ a more elaborate dinner than the family 
usually has. She feels freer that mother is away; not 
that she is unloving, but somehow this makes the enterprise 
more fully her own. True enough she quakes a bit when 
father telephones that he will bring home the prominent 
Mr. Marshall; but this is over quickly, as she determines 
to get a dinner of which she and her father — and her 
mother when she shall hear about it — will be proud. So 
far we have the first step, purposing: the girl purposes to 
serve a good dinner. It seems too to be a whole-hearted 
purpose. 

“With this purpose in mind, she plans her meal: what the 
menu shall be, how she will set and dress the table, and how 
she will serve the meal. Her course in home 
economics at school makes her feel surer of 
herself. In this instance it is necessary that her planning 
precede the executing. This is not always so; frequently 
the two overlap. So this is the second step, planning: She 
plans in advance all that she will do. 

“Then follows the third step, the executing. Some last- 
minute things must be ordered from the grocer. Fortu- 
nately the roast already in the house will do, 
even for Mr. Marshall. Everything must be 
prepared, cooked, and finally served, the table meanwhile 
having been made ready. In this case the executing extends © 
to the end of the meal and even afterwards. All, let us sup- 
pose, was done according to plan except for a few minor 
changes. 


Purposing 


Planning 


Executing 





PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 205 


‘Last comes judging. How well did she succeed? Her 
guests help her (in more than one way) to judge, but she 
knows that part of their praise of her success 
comes from their wish to please her. She tries 
to appraise it all fairly, for she means to succeed as a house- 
keeper. So she asks of each thing, ‘Did I do what I planned? 
How well did I succeed?’ This I should wish to call the 
specific judging, for there is another kind. If she really 
means to profit best by her experience she will ask further, 
‘Now that it is all over, what have I learned? What mis- 
takes did I make? Wherein could I do better next time?’ 
This last I like to call the generalizing.” 

“Do you count then two sub-steps under judging?”’ 

“Ves; (a) specific judging, and (b) generalization.” 

“Do you mean that every instance of purposeful activity 
must follow these steps, all separated like this?’”’ 

‘No, I do not. The younger the child and the less pre- 
tentious the enterprise the less likely are the steps to be so 
separately distinct as here. But typically, I think, all four 
will be found logically present if not actually or chrono- 
logically distinct.’ 

“To you mean that two or more might go on simultane- 
ously?”’ 

‘“‘Ves, we shall often see planning, executing, and judging 
intermingled if not exactly simultaneous.” 

‘‘ How are these steps related to each other? How does one 
influence the other?”’ 

“T think we can answer that. Clearly the purpose is 
the dominating factor. The purpose either porations of 
supplies or is the drive which carries us along the steps to 
throughout the whole. Then we plan how we °°! rs 
may attain the purpose; there is obvious correlation here. 
Similarly the execution is the carrying out of the plan, 
execution being thus as strictly the correlative of the plan 


Judging 


206 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


as the plan is of the purpose. Also, of course, the execution 
is with reference to the purpose. And finally the purpose 
must test and judge the execution: Does the final result 
secure and meet the original purpose? If not, was it plan or 
execution which was at fault?” 

“Yes, I see that all four steps are very closely and in- 
herently related.” 

‘“Might one person help another take one or more of the 
steps? Or might one take one or more of the steps for 
Helping one Other person? If so, would this be good or 
to take the bad?” 
sted ‘We often see elders taking one or more of 
the steps for the young under their care. Shall we approve 
or disapprove?” 

‘What do you mean by one person’s taking a step for 
another? How could a teacher purpose for a pupil?” 

‘How could she? That’s what they do nearly all the 
time. How much purposing do pupils do? I mean as to 
what shall go on in school. The teachers, or persons di- 
recting the teachers, do about all the purposing that goes 
on in the ordinary school.” 

‘Do we agree?’’ 7 

“In the case of the ordinary school — yes, I think go.” 

“Ts this good or bad?” 

“Tt depends on whether we accept the general position 
we have been discussing. If we really believe in purposeful 
activity, then we must regret to see children having no 
part in purposing.”’ 

‘Do you mean that it makes a difference who does the 
purposing?”’ 

“TI certainly do mean that. In fact that’s 
child gucpenee| he pointrofithelmHblanatten 48 ate child is 
to learn best, the child is to do the purposing.”’ 

‘But surely you do not mean that a child can select as 


FN oe 


=a 


ee 


PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 207 


wisely as a grown-up, as the parent or the teacher, for in- 
stance? You can’t mean that?”’ 

‘‘As I see it, the word purpose is used in two somewhat 
different senses, and we must distinguish them to get the 
right idea. Your question uses the word 7, mean- 
‘select’ as if child purposing means primarily ings of 
that the child, and the child alone, shall select pRurpose? 
and determine what shall be done; and you seem further to 
imply that we expect the teacher to accept the child’s 
selection.” 

“Well, what else could you mean?”’ 

‘‘T said there were two senses in which the word purposing 
is used. Do you see any difference between a child’s doing 
what he wishes and a child’s wishing what he does?” 

‘“‘T think I see what you mean.” 

“Well, our plan is primarily that a child shall wish what 
be does, that he have and put soul and purpose into what 
he does. If this is his attitude toward what he ss 
does, then are set and readiness and satisfaction st Re ateGee 
and annoyance best utilized for his learning, as acceptance of 
we have many times said.” Se one eee 

‘Then the suggestion might come from the teacher, and 
the child still purpose the matter in the sense you most 
wish?”’ 

‘Quite so. We have, so far, not based any argument on 
the child’s originating or even selecting (in the sense of his 
deciding) what shall be done. So far, all that we have 
claimed will be met if the child whole-heartedly accepts 
and adopts the teacher’s suggestion.”’ 

‘And is this whole-hearted acceptance the other, the 
second, sense of purposing?”’ 

c¢ Yes.”’ 

‘‘And you don’t care whether the child purposes in the 
first sense or not — that is, you don’t care whether he does 


208 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


or does not originate the idea, or whether he does or does 
not choose (that is, decide and determine) what he is to do?” 
Pennbihg ced ‘T didn’t say I didn’t care. I do care; I 
origination care both positively and negatively, care to 
and choice = encourage it sometimes, care to discourage or 
rather educate it at other times.”’ 

“Now I am completely lost. What do you mean, care 
positively and negatively? Please explain.” 

“Go back to my distinction between doing as he wishes 
and wishing what he does. Take the first, ‘do as he wishes.’ 
Suppose a child wishes to do wrong; then I 
wish him stopped, caught, redirected, educated 
in some way, so that (a) he shall learn that 
what he had proposed was wrong, (b) he shall learn why it 
was wrong, (c) he shall so regret wishing this particular 
wrong that hereafter he will less probably wish it again. 
In a word when he wishes to do wrong, I wish him to learn 
the error of his way and so to repent of his wrong inclina- 
tion that he will hereafter not so wish again. Is this wish- 
ing him to do as he pleases?”’ 

“No, it is not. At least it is not so when he pleases to 
do wrong.”’ 

‘But who is to say whether he is wrong? That’s the 
rub.” 

“The teacher. That’s one thing the teacher is there for. 
But notice this, the teacher is mainly there that the child 

.. may learn. The good teacher will so manage 
emai) * that the child shall best learn, all things con- 
but must sidered.” 
ins “What do you mean? You have something 


A purpose to 
do wrong 


else in mind.” 

“I mean this: that if the child purposes to do wrong, it 
will not usually suffice for the teacher merely to forbid, 
still less merely to punish.”’ 





PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 209 


“You mean the teacher must manage the case so as to 
educate the child, cause him to grow?” 

“Exactly so; the teacher must increase his outlook and 
insight, improve his attitudes and appreciations. It is 
again a case of SEE and WILL.”’ 

‘“‘And you think mere denial or mere punishment are not 
usually the best means of improving SEE and WILL?” 

“Usually they are not, though at times they may be.” 

‘““You have discussed the case when a child 
wishes to do wrong. Suppose he wishes to do ph ai 
right?” 

‘Then I wish him to go ahead and I pray success may 
attend.” ; 

“Why?” 

‘“Because I believe in practice with satisfaction. When 
he himself thinks things over and chooses rightly and from 
right motives, I wish these inclinations better fastened in 
him; so I wish him God-speed. It is practice with satisfac- 
tion.” 

“T admit your consistency. You wish the child to 
‘practice the right with satisfaction’ and to ‘practice the 
wrong with annoyance.’ But have you not overlooked one 
thing?”’ 

‘What is that?” 

“This child will grow up and leave you. Do you not 
wish him to have practice in judging right from wrong? 
And if so, doesn’t that mean that he must have some lee- 
way for practice? If the teacher interposes AN 

- 1 Practice in 
the moment that he goes wrong, I am afraid uagihe 
he won’t get the best kind of practice.”’ 

“You are exactly right, and for that reason I wish the 
teacher to give the children freedom enough to practice 
choosing.” 

‘Freedom! how much freedom?” 


210 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“As much as they can use wisely.” 

‘“‘And how much is that?” 

Breeden ‘Growing is the test. If they learn how to 
why and make better moral distinctions and if they 
Bpemuch better act accordingly, they are growing, and 
then they are using their freedom wisely. If not, they are 
not so using it.”’ 

“But may not one learn from his mistakes?” 

“Most certainly, and I mean to include that. What I 
demand is that the child shall grow in the matter at hand.” 

“Then, if we may go back, in this matter of child purpos- 
ing, you first and mainly wish whole-hearted purposing of 
what a child is doing because the learning re- 
sults are then likely to be best?” 

“Yes, up to to-day that has been our main 
contention. That is what we have mainly meant when 
we have hitherto advocated whole-hearted child purposing.”’ 

‘And this is quite consistent with teacher suggestion, 
provided the child does whole-heartedly accept the teacher’s 
suggestion?” 

| Quiterso.” 

‘But now you wish to take a step further and say that 
a child should, under wise teacher guidance and control, 
practice choosing?” 

‘Yes, granted wise guidance, to practice choosing is the 
best promise for growth in power to choose.” 

“And in this you would give all the freedom the chil- 
dren can use successfully?” 

‘Yes, that’s it.”’ 

‘And by ‘successfully’ you mean that they are to grow 
in making wise and ethical choices?” 

“Yes, growth is always the test. If that is taking place 
properly, we are on the right line. If not, something is 
wrong.” 


Why child 
purposing 


ee 


PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 211 


‘“‘Is this the only reason why you wish the children to 
practice purposing in the sense of selecting and deciding?”’ 

“Well, I should add another word to selecting and de- 
ciding, namely, the word originating. I wish the children 
to have practice in seeing in any situation its own prob- 
lem, its own demand. If the teacher always suggests, I 
fear they will lose this opportunity. This is an important 
aspect of initiative.”’ 

“You think initiative can be developed in any one? I 
thought we were born with it or born without it, and that 
that ended the matter.” 

‘Excepting the most unfortunate, all are born with some 
capacity along this line. Here as elsewhere proper educa- 
tion will develop what nature has given.”’ 

‘‘Now, one last question: Do you believe in teachers?” 

‘‘Most certainly. We need them on my 
basis, more if possible than on the old basis.” Heaton 

‘And you lodge actual final authority in this 
teacher with power to command or forbid as may be neces- 
sary?” 

‘As between teacher and child, I certainly do.” 

‘“But you wish the teacher to give freedom?” 

‘Freedom, yes, but not unlimited freedom; freedom for 
practice, and as much freedom as does in fact bring growth 
from practice. Growth is always our criterion.” 

‘And you wish the children to assume as much respon- 
sibility in matters of choice and direction as is consistent 
with best growth?” 

“Yes, for I think they can grow only as they practice. 
That is the law of exercise.”’ 

“But at times the teacher may step in?” 

“Yes, not only may, must step in, to save the day. But 
as a rule the teacher helps best by helping the children to 
help themselves. This again is the law of exercise.” 


212 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘We've been all this time discussing how the teacher or 
other person can step in to help or hurt a child in the mat- 
ter of purposing. It has taken us a long time, and there 
are yet three other steps. Shall we take them up?” 

“By all means, unless you think we have already covered 
the whole ground.”’ 

“What do you mean?” 

“IT mean that we are to deal with the other three just as 
we dealt with purposing. We wish the child to practice 
Practice in alt Planning, practice executing, practice judging. 
four steps It is his practice alone that can educate him. 
pic itantes | And practice is impossible without freedom for 
practice. So again we wish freedom, as much and only as 
much as the child can use wisely. And still again, the test 
is growth.” 

“It does look as if we have already covered the ground 
with all four steps.”’ 

“T should like to ask about planning. Don’t you think 
that the teacher should often supply the plan. Take a 


Shall the boy planting corn, for example; think of the 


benches waste of land and fertilizer and effort. Science 
Sales! the has worked out better plans than a boy can 
plan 


make.”’ 

‘And in such case you would advocate furnishing the 
boy with the best plan the teacher could find or devise?” 

“Yes, wouldn’t you?” 

‘IT think it depends on what you seek. If you wish corn, 
give the boy the plan. But if you wish boy rather than 
corn, that is, if you wish to educate the boy to think and 
plan for himself, then let him make his own plan.” 

‘No matter how much waste is involved?” 

‘We always have to balance all factors and then decide. 
In a particular case the waste may cost more than the 
learning will come to.” 


PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 213 


‘“‘And what about the wealth of material which science 
has worked out, surely you wouldn’t reject and lose all 
that?” 

‘Most certainly not. I should hope my boy would con- 
sult the books where all this accumulated wealth could be 
found. But I should hope that he would search and he 
would find and he would compare and he would think why, 
and in the end that he would make his own decision.” 

“Why do you wish these things?” 

“For the reason named: I wish to educate the boy, and 
I believe that he will learn only as he practices. If he is 
to be an intelligent user of what science has to offer he 
must practice finding and adapting what science has to 
offer to his problem.”’ 

‘You would use guidance?” 

“Yes, just as we explained above. The teacher has 
authority, but he will try to help the boy to help himself.” 

‘Then you object to the practice which some teachers of 
agriculture follow of furnishing the boy a detailed plan of 
how to conduct his home project work?” 

‘‘I most surely do.” 

“Are there no things which the boy should take over 
bodily from the expert?” 

‘There are in the aggregate many such, but when teach- 
ing is our object we must be on our guard not to hurt the 
boy by overstressing these.” 

‘Are there other reasons for wishing the boy to make his 
own plan?” 

“Yes; one such is that if he makes it he feels a different 
degree of responsibility for carrying it out.” 

‘And that increases the whole-heartedness of his purpose.” 

“Yes, and this means a more definite set with more of 
appropriate readiness with consequently more of appro- 
priate satisfaction and annoyance, and consequently better 


214 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


learning of all kinds, associate and concomitant as well as 
primary.” 

“You say then practically the same thing of all four steps 
— purposing, planning, executing, and judging. The more 
fully the child can and will take each step for himself the 
better, but if there is trouble the teacher is to step in to 
save the day?” 

‘Yes, that’s what I think.” 


‘When you say ‘save the day’ is it the success of the - 


enterprise that concerns you?” 
‘Not primarily. It is the child that pri- 

Teacher 3 f 
should help marily concerns me. I do wish success, as we 
the child vey have said before, for the sake of the learner. 
ena Failure discourages and otherwise lessens the 
learning. Success encourages and otherwise improves the 
learning.” 

‘And the teacher helps best by helping, if possible, the 
child to help himself?” 

“Yes, always.”’ 

‘I have somewhere heard the phrase ‘complete act.’ 
What does it mean?” 

‘““A complete act is one where the learner 
eee himself takes each step in the process; he pur- 
poses, he plans, he executes, and he judges.” 

“Then there are all degrees of completeness to be found?” 

fT OYOS oe 

‘And in our ordinary schools few really complete acts?” 

“Yes, either of child or of teacher. The teacher tells the 
child to do what some one has already set out for the 
teacher.”’ 

‘You mean that teacher and child are both bound by a 
course of study?” 

‘Yes, by course of study and by examinations given from 
above.” 





PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY: THE COMPLETE ACT 215 


‘And you think this bad for both teacher and children?” 

“Tt is at least unfortunate, though the matter is too 
complicated to admit of an answer in a few words.” 

“Your definition of a complete act seems to fit only 
individual enterprises. Can not a group enterprise be a 
complete act?” 

‘Certainly, if the group does as a group per- 
form each step with reasonable whole-hearted- 
ness, jointly and singly, as the lawyers say, then I should 
say we have a joint or group complete act.”’ 

“You said we found few complete acts in the ordinary 
school. Where do we find them?” 

‘“T should say they are far more frequently found out of 
school, in extra-curricular activities, on holidays and in 
vacation time. They are also being introduced increasingly 
into the school work of the more progressive type.” 

“You approve their introduction into school work?” 

“T certainly do, just as fast as we feasibly can introduce 
them.” 

“Won't you summarize what we have covered this after- 
noon? I think I have the gist of the discussion, but I should 
like to know how you see it and say it in brief.”’ 

‘“We have been discussing purposeful activity in many 
of its varied aspects. Purposeful activity need not be 
primarily manual or motor. We value the 
factor of purpose because it promises success, 
because it organizes the steps in the process or, perhaps 
better, into a process, and because it so utilizes set and 
readiness as to furnish the conditions most favorable to all 
kinds of learning. The four steps in a typical instance of 
purposeful activity are purposing, planning, executing, and 
judging. The last includes two kinds of judging, the specific 
as to the success of the result and the generalizing as to 
what general lessons have been learned. These steps 


The group 
complete act 


Summary 


216 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


mutually imply each other, but may in particular instances 
go on several at a time. For learning to go on best, the 
learner should himself take each step in the process. Where 
this takes place we have what is called a ‘complete act.’ If 
a child is about to fail with any step, the teacher may prop- 
erly intervene to save from failure; for final failure may 
mean discouragement and lessened learning. But the teacher 
will help best by helping the child to help himself.” 

“In it all then you wish the child to carry as much as 
possible of the whole activity?” 

“Yes; if we wish to educate the child, that is the best 
way.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Kitpatrick—The Project Method, pp. 8-9, 17. 
Kinpatrick—Source Book in the Philosophy of Kducation, No. 27, 
265;'512,/ 513: 


CHAPTER XIV 
MEANING AND THINKING 


““T am interested to see that each thing I pay attention 
to carries me forward or backward to something else. Is 
this always true?”’ How ack 

“T don’t quite understand you.” thing points 

‘Why, this knife carries me back, or carries me 
my mind back at any rate, to my uncle who gave it to me. 
This blade, which is dull from use, carries me on to the 
idea of sharpening it. These words on the blade carry 
me to Sheffield, England, where the knife was made. 
This chair I think of as being my father’s. Those flowers, 
I know came from Aunt Sarah. Each thing I see seems 
to point to something else.”’ 

‘“Tsn’t that merely another way of saying that each thing 
has meaning?” 

‘Does ‘meaning’ mean that one thing points essentially 
to something else to fill it out?” 

‘It would seem so.”’ 

“Does each thing have one meaning or many?” 

“Many, surely. This stick is bamboo; that means the 
far East. Shaped as it is, it means also a walking cane. 
It was a gift from my uncle in China; it 
means then his thoughtfulness.” aad 

‘On one occasion it meant, too, a weapon 
of defense. You remember when the dog attacked you?” 

“Yes, that’s true.” 

“Tt does seem that each thing has or carries many mean-~ 
ings.” 


Meaning 


217 


218 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“You mean that each thing has many different connec- 
tions or relations which give to it its meaning or mean- 
ings?” 

“Something like that seems to be true.” 

“What then does ‘meaning’ mean?” 

“That sounds like an odd combination of words. If you 
answer the question, are you not using in your definition the 


What name of the thing to be defined? And is that 
‘meaning’ good logic?” 
means 


“It wouldn’t trouble me, but suppose I 
change the question to this: What is the situation in which 
the word ‘meaning’ fits?” 

“That almost makes it worse for me, but I should say 
that a meaning is present and is put to use when one thing 
makes you think of another.” 

“If I understand you, we have an instance of meaning 
whenever any one thing makes us look to or think about or 
expect something else, and the something else is almost, if 
not quite, a part of the thing. This chair makes me think 
of my grandfather who made it himself for his library. 
This makes me think that. This means that. This chair 
is what he made.” 

“In a case of meaning then there will always be found a 
this and a that; the this is first present to thought and the 
that then comes to mind; the that fills out or completes the 
this. Am I right?” 

“Yes, that’s the way I understand it.” 

‘And any one thing may have many meanings?” 

“Yes, depending on how much experience one has had of 
the thing or in connection with it.” 

“T don’t quite understand.” 

“To the baby a milk bottle means food or, rather, taking 
this food; but to his mother it means food as nourishment 
for the baby, and the possibility of illness if the bottle 


Se ee ee eee 


MEANING AND THINKING 219 


has not been properly sterilized or the milk be not properly 
prepared. The milk, of course, comes from cows and must 
be properly certified. Certification means @ meanings 
careful examination by suitable authorities. come from 
To the baby few meanings, to the mother experience 
many, very many, each according to his or her experi- 
ence.” 

“Do meanings come then from experience?”’ 

‘“‘Certainly.” 

‘Tt reminds me of the S—R discussion. May we not 
say that the this is an S and that the mean- 
ing, the moving from the this to the that, is 
the R?” | 

“That is exactly the way we must think of them, I 
believe.” 

‘Then meanings are learned?” 

‘“Bxactly so. They have to be acquired through expe- 
rience, and the laws of learning control here as elsewhere.” 

‘‘Must they be consciously made?” 

‘‘Not necessarily with conscious intent, but the more we 
think about any experience the more meanings will prob- 
ably come out of it.” 

“Do you say that a thing has meanings?” 

‘Do you mean to ask where the meanings reside —1in the 
thing or in the person?” 

SONS Ie 

‘“That’s an old question. To many it has been a puzzle. 
But it seems to me that we have answered it. 

The S is the thing and the thought response ueitene. 
(R) comes, if it comes at all, because an 

S —,R bond has been built up and if the 8 sufficiently 
stimulates the bond to act.” 

‘‘Where do you say that meanings reside when they are 
not in use?” 


Meanings 
andS—R 


220 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“I think there are two answers; first and primarily, in 
the nervous system in the S— R bonds; second and second- 
arily, in the thing as a stimulus or symbol. Still more 
exactly, in the S— R relationship where the S has a bond or 
connection so built up as to bring the appropriate response 
as & meaning.” 

‘Might the two ever get separated?” 

“Something like this did happen with the Egyptian 
hieroglyphics. The symbols, the hieroglyphics, remained 
as cut on the temples and monuments of Egypt, but 
the knowledge of what they meant had been lost to all 
men and remained lost till the Rosetta stone was found 
and used.’ 

“You people make me tired. What is the use of all this 
palaver about meanings? Why don’t you come down to the 
solid ground and talk about things that are worth while? 
Why can’t you use common sense? To you education seems 
to stretch out to include very far-away things. I can’t under- 
stand you.” 

‘Are meanings then of no use? Suppose by some mis- 
chance you were to lose your stock of meanings, how would 
you get on?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“T mean just what I say. What would you do? You 
couldn’t talk, for language is but one lot of meanings. You 
couldn’t eat, for you wouldn’t know food from 
stones or clothing. You couldn’t walk about; 
you wouldn’t know a tree from a hole in the 
ground or a house from a paved sidewalk. Your thinking 
would reduce itself to practical zero; you’d have nothing to 
think with.” 

“Would it be as bad as all that?” 

‘Yes. It is hardly too much to say that you and your 
world (that is, you as a thinking being and the world as 


The use 
of meanings 





MEANING AND THINKING 221 


you use it, as it exists for you) consist of the meanings that 
have been built up in you by all your varied experiences.” 

‘And the child thus progressively builds himself and his 
world?”’ 

“Tn a very true sense this is a correct statement.”’ 

‘And meanings are the stuff of which he builds both 
himself and his world?” 

“So far as he knows himself and his world 
and builds himself to act on this knowledge, 
yes. Meanings are the stuff of which one’s thought world 
is built, and they exist as the means of the conscious 
control of self and the world.” 

“Wouldn’t you say then that the educator should take 
account of this fact?” Education 

“Indeed, yes. This is one of the reasons and 
why education is changing so fundamentally eater 
nowadays, why we insist on actual experiences and are 
no longer content with mere words descriptive of things. 
Actual experiences build meanings.”’ 

“Doesn’t experience also test meanings that have been 
built?” 

“Most certainly, but I included testing as part of the 
process of building meanings. Actual experience is the 
richest evoker or suggester of meanings and at the same 
time the best and only final means of testing meanings.” 

“You think then that experience is better than educa- 
tion?”’ 

“Who said anything like that? Why oppose experience 
to education? Why not say that experience is the best 
educator?” Experience 

“Then you don’t believe in teachers or and 
schools? Experience is sufficient?’’ Sete 

“Again I ask you who said anything like that? Why 
oppose experience to teaching and schools? Why not say 


Meanings the 
stuff of ideas 


222 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


that the best school is one that makes the best use of expe- 
rience? And if you say ‘yes’ to this, then I’ll say that a 
teacher is necessary to help pick the most educative experi- 
ences and to help steer each experience to its most fruitful 
outcomes.” 

‘“Where would the race experience come in?” 

“IT could almost say everywhere. You can’t live here on 
this earth without living on, in, through, with, by, and from 
Raceerne: the race experience. It is everywhere and all 
rience and = = =pervasive. But, in addition, the intelligent 
Ro sn teacher will use the race experience as a basis 
for choosing among the possible experiences while also 
using it as a basis for steering any actual experience to its 
best outcomes.” 

‘Do you mean to limit our children to what may be called 
first-hand experiences? Have you no place for vicarious 
experience?”’ 

“You strike now, to my judgment, a more significant 
question. When it comes to the learning process our own 

first-hand experiences have a vividness and a 
First-hand : 
vs.second- touch that the reported experiences of others 


hand expe- almost certainly lack. In this sense, experience 


re is the best teacher. If vividness and definiteness 


of learning were the whole story, we might say that we should 
use only first-hand experiences. But there are other factors 
to be considered. First-hand experiencing may be very 
painful, for this reason too costly to use. We do not advise 
that a child learn by personal experience that a sharp knife 
can cut an artery, or that arsenic is a poison, or that a leap 
from the housetop would probably kill. Still again, to use 
only first-hand experiences is a long process. If we did not 
somehow shorten the process, each individual would have to 
start where the race began and there could be no progress 
in civilization. What combination then to make of first-hand 





MEANING AND THINKING 223 


and second-hand experience depends on at least these three 
factors and how they interact in any given instance.”’ 

“‘T don’t see the three factors. Which are they?”’ 

“T mean vividness and definiteness of learning to be the 
first, cost in pain or sorrow the second, cost in time the third. 
The more first-hand experience the more vivid and definite 
the learning, but it is likely to be costly of time and pains.” 

“Would you not say that there is a sort of irreducible 
minimum of first-hand experience which is necessary if 
the second-hand experience is to be assimilated?” 

“Yes I should. Ifa child has never seen a zebra I can tell 
him that it looks like a striped mule, and if I take proper 
pains he will get some idea of a zebra. But if the child has 
never seen a mule and I have to tell him what a mule is 
like in terms of horse, then his notion of zebra is less 
definite. The further we get away from first-hand experi- 
ence, the hazier our ideas are likely to be.”’ 

“So you would have early education take pains to provide 
a great variety of first-hand experiences?” 

“Indeed I would, much concrete experiencing with things, 
leading on to more and more precise thinking about things.” 

“ And what about the education of older children?”’ 

“Always and everywhere there should be experiences 
that bring meanings, experiences so selected and so guided 
that the stock of meanings is continually en- yyognings 
riched and better organized. More and better and first-hand 
meanings, better and better organized.” expanen ce 

“Could you define education in this way?” 

“On its intellectual side, yes. What I just gave would be 
such a definition.” 

‘What is the connection between meanings and think- 
ing? Are they not closely related?”’ 

“Yes, almost as closely as wings and flying.’ 

“What do you mean?” 


224 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“IT mean that meanings, when appropriately put into 
action, constitute thinking, just as wings appropriately at 
work constitute flying.” 
and “Meanings are the stuff we think with?” 
“That’s another way of saying it.” 

“Would you say that meanings are structure and think- 
ing is the functioning of structure?” 

“T think that is just what we have been saying.” 

‘What then is the essence of thinking?” 

“For practical purposes thinking is a going from a, this to 

a that. It is expecting something else from this 
aoe thing at hand. When I say, ‘This cloud means 

rain; we had better hurry,’ I am thinking. I 
am seeing this cloud, but I am going beyond the mere cloud. 
I am, from and because of the cloud, expecting rain.” 

‘Then the practical essence of thinking is a look into the 
future?”’ 

“Yes, an expectant look into the future.” | 

‘That is why some have called thinking an adventure?” 

“Yes, in its practical essence thinking is an adventure 
into the unknown future.”’ 

‘‘T can see the future about it—I mean the 
element of futurity in it —but why say ‘ad- 
venture’ and ‘unknown’? I should think 
many meanings are so well known and fixed as to have 
lost any element of uncertainty they may once have had. 
This chair, for instance, is something to sit in; I have sat 
in it so often and so satisfactorily that I know pretty well 
what to expect. Where then is the adventure into the 
unknown?” 

‘““We can well agree that there is a wide range in this 
matter of adventure, of certainty and uncertainty. Even 
your familiar chair may unexpectedly break down, or may 
conceal a pin that has somehow got hid in its cushions. 


Thinking an 
adventure 





MEANING AND THINKING 225 


Suppose we think of a scale from a state of very great 
uncertainty (U) reaching up to a state of very reliable 
certainty (C). Any instance of thinking will belong 


U C 


Weel bil Acs bind onion LEAD deed ab ARTS le i 


somewhere on this scale. We might say our wish is to 
move our thinking about any specific thing as far above 
U and as near toward C as we can.” 

‘Would you say then that your thinking on that point 
has increased in reliability?”’ 

“Certainly. It is now more to be relied 
upon.” 

“Tf T understand you, the thinking you are talking about 
tells you what to expect as regards a certain matter?” 

mY acy? 

“And this expectation since it depends on human fall- 
bility in a very complex world is more or less uncertain 
as to its outcome?” 

PV est 

‘‘And for this reason thinking is to be counted as an ad- 
venture into the unknown?” 

Veg”? 

‘Are there ways of increasing the general reliability of 
one’s thinking?” 

‘To be sure there are.” 

‘Are you not now assuming what has been called ‘for- 
mal discipline’? ”’ 

“No, I think not; that is, not in any unwarranted sense. 
If a person forms such a habit as ‘stopping to think,’ which 
can be so formed as to hold in many more or Fa sib es 
less novel cases, his judgments are thereby reliability 
carried up this scale of reliability. There are OE uDiie 
still other habits that may be formed for the examination of 


Reliability 
of thinking 


226 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


the situation, the collection of data, the testing of sugges- 
tions, and the like. All such tend to raise the reliability of 
one’s thinking.”’ 

“And you think that if these habits are formed one’s 
improvement in thinking will be equally good in every line 
of thought?”’ 

‘““T did not say so. One must form such habits in a limited 
field of experience, since he is finite. The habits thus formed 
will then carry over to other fields only as there are common 
elements between the new and the old.” 

“And by ‘carry over,’ you mean that one will think to 
use these thought habits in the new field?” 

“That is mainly what I had in mind.” 

“But after one has become familiar with a field his 
thinking in that field has on the whole increased in re- 
lability?” 

‘Yes, he has accumulated the results of his past thinking 
in that field. The bad thinking of the past has been in good 
part eliminated; the good remains. His accumulations are 
the thoughts that have stood the test of experience.” 

“Then you say we can improve the reliability of our 
thinking partly by accumulating the tested results of past 
thinking and partly by building good thought habits?” 

“Yes, that’s it.” 

‘‘T once heard an interesting discussion on whether words 
convey thought. What do you say? Do words convey 
thought?” 

‘“‘T don’t see anything debatable in that. Of 


Do words ; 
convey course words convey thought. Otherwise how 
AN sas can I tell anybody anything?” 


“That’s Just the question — how do you tell anybody 
anything? Or perhaps better, what exactly does take place 
when you tell a person something?”’ 

‘“T still don’t see the difficulty. I just tell him. That’s 





MEANING AND THINKING 227 


all I see to it. I convey my thought to him by the words I 
use. Where is the difficulty?” 

“Tet’s try. Choose some color that you know and that 
I don’t know. Then tell me what the color is so that I will 
know.” 

“All right. Will gamboge do? Do you know that?” 

‘No, you have made a good choice. Go ahead now and 
tell me.”’ 

“T’m not sure that I can make you get the exact shade I 
have in mind, but I’ll try. Gamboge is a yellow verging 
on brown in deep masses.” 

“Now I think you have answered our question as to 
whether words convey thought. You say: ‘I am not sure 
I can make you get the exact shade I have in mind.’ And 
then you tell me about yellow and brown. Don’t you see 
that you are using meanings that you and I have in common 
(yellow and brown) to try to make me think certain things 
that you think?” 

“Ves, I see that, but that’s just what I said. I just tell 
you. I convey my thought to you by my words.” 

‘But that is just what you don’t do. You didn’t convey 
your thought of gamboge to me; you didn’t even try. You 
went at the matter by a roundabout way. You pow words 
talked of yellow and brown, trying to make me stimulate 
‘get it’ you said. I repeat, you didn’t convey HOE 
your thought; you didn’t try to. You tried to stir me to 
think something like your thought. You thought if you 
talked about yellow, I would think yellow. Then if you 
said ‘verging on brown,’ you thought that my thought would 
move out in the direction of gamboge.” 

‘““You’re quibbling now.”’ 

“Indeed, lam not. I think a most helpful notion of style, 
whether oral or written, and an excellent lesson in punctua- 
tion will come out of the distinction I am making.’ 


228 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Well, I don’t follow you. Won’t you try again?” 

‘With pleasure. Suppose I have a long fishing pole and 
I see a frog not far away. I think he is of the kind that can 
make a long leap. I wish to see him do this. How can I 
convey my thought to him that I wish him to leap?” 

‘Nonsense. You don’t try to convey your thought to 
him. You don’t even wish to convey any thought to him. 
You take your long pole and stir him to action. 


Stirring ; ; 
a frog You poke him. He leaps. It isan S— R bond 
bey bet aaotiy affair. You stimulate him. He leaps. Why 


does he leap? Because he has by nature the right S—> R 
bonds. That’s all. But it’s different with the gamboge.”’ 

“Is it different? On the contrary, isn’t it exactly the same 
thing. Let’s illustrate with a speaker. He wishes his audi- 
ence to think and feel certain things. He chooses his words, 
his intonation, his gestures, all as stimuli to stir his auditors 
to think certain thoughts and feel certain emotions. While 
he is doing this he may be thinking that the room is hot, that 
the crowd at the door is noisy and may hinder his efforts, 
that his auditors are not yet ready for his full thought and 
must be prepared, that they are now a little sleepy and had 
better be stirred by an amusing story. Does he really try 
to convey his thought?” 

‘You mean to ask whether convey is a good word to 
describe what he does or rather what he tries to do.” 

‘Exactly so, and I think it isn’t. In a sense he may be 
said to convey his thought; but psychologically, no, he stirs 
thought. He uses symbols to rouse meanings.” 


We stir t 
howe: ah ‘‘And both must know the same symbols and 
ey they must be joined with like meanings?” 

oug 


‘Yes, that’s it. That’s what language is.” — 

“But the speaker uses more than words —he shrugs his 
shoulder, he frowns, he sneers. These, too, are symbols and 
have meanings.” 


MEANING AND THINKING 229 


‘Quite right, and they are language too of a kind. At 
any rate they all illustrate my point that, psychologically, 
we do not directly convey thought. Westirit. Westimulate 
it. We use 8’s that are connected with like R’s in both 
speaker and hearer. We speak the §8’s, the hearer makes — 
more or less accurately — the R’s that we hoped for.” 

“How about that punctuation lesson you promised?” 

“Tt is the same. I don’t punctuate — or I shouldn’t — 
merely to use, repeat, illustrate some rules on punctuation. 
Some people do; they are mere pedants. I pyictuation 
say to myself, ‘I wish my readers to think to guide 
thus and so. If I use a comma here will they “ought 
more likely think this or not?’ I punctuate then pragmati- 
cally, to affect my readers and to effect in them certain 
desired thoughts, to make them think the things I wish.” 

‘‘And that gives you a practical criterion with which to 
judge the success of your punctuation?” 

‘‘Rixactly, yes. I like the phrase, “success of my punc- 
tuation.’? You have got my idea. A pedant seeks criteria to 
judge of the ‘correctness’ of his punctuation, and he means 
by correctness mere conformity with established rules.” 

‘And you think your notion here will help one to punc- 
tuate more successfully?” 

‘“‘Indeed, I do think so. It will help the individual as mat- 
ters now stand and, still more, wili gradually help the literary 
world to reduce the number of senseless conventions in this 
field.” 

‘“And what about style? You said, if I understand, that 
your idea of stirring, not conveying, thought eNO Ae 
would help the writer or speaker.” style is 

‘““Yes and I repeat it. If I, as writer, under- successful 
stand fully that I am trying to stimulate people Suaetie 
to think, I have a real criterion with which to judge of 
my own success.” 


230 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘Some people have cynically said that words are to con- 
ceal thought. Does that come in here?” 

‘“‘T think it does. If I believe that I can directly convey 
my thought, it will be easier for me to be content if I can 
see my thought in my words. In such case my words will 
probably conceal my thought. But if I have to consider the 
other person and the effect of my words on him, I shall not 
be content that my thought lies concealed in my words. I 
shall ask myself very explicitly what thoughts my words are 
likely to call forth in my readers or hearers, and I shall keep 
experimenting till I can make words stir the exact thoughts 
T wish.” 

‘“‘It has been an unusual discussion we have had; I should 
like to hear it summed up.” 

‘As I see it, we have discussed two main things, meanings 
and thinking. Meaning we found to consist in the fact that 
a this, present to thought or sense, suggests or 
points to a that as filling out or completing the 
this. Thinking we saw is exactly the name we give to the 
movement from the this to the that. That is, thinking is a 
meaning appropriately at work. From this relationship we 
saw that education is greatly concerned with having children 
get many and exact meanings as the basis for thinking. We 
saw too that practical thinking is essentially a foretelling of 
what to anticipate or expect when one faces a situation. In 
this sense, thinking is to be considered as an adventure into 
the unknown future. From this fact, education gets a princi- 
pal task of increasing the reliability of thinking—in general 
by developing certain rules to guide the process, and more 
specifically by accumulating in any field the successful 
thoughts pertaining to that field. 

‘An interesting application of this conception of meanings 
and thinking was that words do not, psychologically, convey 
thought, but at best act as symbols to arouse in the hearer 


Summary 


a es a 


| 
| 
| 





MEANING AND THINKING 231 


or reader the thought desired by the speaker or writer. This 
conception gave a practical criterion for punctuation and 
for speaking and writing: How shall I so say this as to 
stir the precise thought I wish?” 

‘‘I am coming to see that there is more in the work of 
education than I had thought.” 

“So am I, and I am glad.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Dewey — How We Think, pp. 6f., 26ff., 30ff., 39ff., 63ff., 116ff., 
125ff., 129ff. | 

Dewey — Democracy and Education, Ch. 12. | 

Kinparrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 29, 
531, 532. 


CHAPTER XV 


Tue Complete Act or THOUGHT 


“Do you recall what we agreed upon last time as the 
essence of thinking?” 

‘Yes, it was the movement of attention from 
The essence = sgmething at: hand to what it means.” 
of thinking ’ : 

‘“Before you begin on that, I wish to ask as 
to what is meant by the word ‘essence’ as you use it here.” 

‘“Bssence is an old word, not so often used now as for- 
merly. As here used, it means thinking stripped, as it were, 
of all surplusage, thinking reduced to its lowest terms, so 
low that it would not be thinking if it were carried any 
lower.”’ 

‘As T recall we discussed the essence of practical think- 
ing, but not of thinking in itself.” 

‘Ves, because thinking is used in a number of senses I 
thought if we said ‘practical thinking’ we should be less likely 
to go astray.” 

‘And what was that essence? J wasn’t here when you 
talked about it.” 

“The essence of practical thinking we found to be the 
movement of attention from any given situation to what to 
ee expect from it, or expect to do about it. The 
etal ea baby is crying; I think he is cold and needs to 
into the be covered up. Such thinking looks essentially 
one to the future and involves an adventure into 
the unknown.” 

‘“‘T don’t quite see.”’ 

“The baby is crying. This is an event in a situation. 


1 face it and think: He is cold and needs to be better covered. 
232 





| 
| 





THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 233 


Whether he is cold and whether covering him more warmly 
will accordingly meet the situation involve for me essentially 
a leap into the dark, not total darkness to be sure, for I know 
somewhat of babies and their cries, but it is still a venture, 
a surmise, an hypothesis. I test my hypothesis, my surmise, 
my mental leap, by trying it out, acting it out, acting upon 
its consequences: If the Deby is cold, covering him will 
probably meet the situation.’ 

“Tam a bit troubled. You say ‘future’ and yet say ‘is 
cold.’ The future is clearest when you set out to try the idea 
of covering the baby. This seems, too, more clearly or more 
surely an adventure.” 

“Our words nearly always join us to the past and its ways 
of thinking. ‘Is cold’ is perhaps an instance. I myself like 
to think of the whole incident as involving for action the 
future element, and this you have well brought out.” 

“Ts this another reason why you said ‘essence of practical 
thinking’?”’ 

‘Yes, I had in mind the kind of thinking that takes place 
typically in action in connection with practicalevents. Take 
this baby. Probably the deepest reason why you say ‘is 
cold,’ is because that is your first step in clearing up the sit- 
uation and deciding what to do about it. The whole thing 
looks to doing something about the crying. That crying 
indicates a situation to be remedied. We must do some- 
thing. Now the whole thinking process involved is one of 
wisely meeting the situation. The doing, what we are to do, 
necessarily lies in the future. And we don’t know whether 
we shall succeed; it is an adventure into the unknown 
future.” 

“Are you not discussing what Dewey calls the ‘Complete 
Act of Thought’?’’! 

‘““Yes, exactly that.” 

1 How We Think, Ch. 6. 


234 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“‘T have heard a good deal about the complete act of 
thought. Just why is it important?” 

‘“Tt happens to have been one of the most influential con- 
ceptions given to the educational world in the past few 
decades. It has been gradually remaking American teaching 
ever since.” 

‘“Might we not study it? I tried once, but somehow the 
class never got anywhere. I know it is important, but I 
never felt that I had reached the bottom of it.”’ 

‘Yes, do; let’s study it.’ 

‘“‘T shall be very glad for us to discuss it, but it will 
take close attention if we are to get out of it what is 
inh tb.) 

“« “We are game; let’s go to it,’ as the boys say.” 

‘“‘First let us be clear that we are discussing not just any 
or all thinking, but the complete act of thought.” 

““Does that mean a very complicated instance 
The complete of thinking?” 
act of thought ie ; " 

Not necessarily complicated, but one ex- 
hibiting all the steps necessary for completeness. A simple 
instance might suffice. What the necessary steps are we 
shall see as we go.” 

‘‘Won’t you give us a preliminary notion?”’ 

‘“Willingly. Keep in mind two things. First, practical 
thinking means following along a practical meaning; this 
thing which is now happening tells us something 
else to expect next. This dark cloud now lower- 
ing makes us expect that rain will soon follow.” 

“But may we not be mistaken? Will the rain certainly 
come?” 

‘Certainly, we may be mistaken. That’s why we say that 
thinking is an adventure, that it involves a leap into the 
dark, a surmise as to the future, an hypothesis as to what 
will happen.” 


Thinking 
a forecast 





THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 235 


“‘You said there are two things to keep in mind. What 
is the other one?”’ 

“The second grows out of the uncertainty. Since we 
must leap, the second tells us to make the 
leap as reliable and trustworthy as possible.” ieee 

“Why?” 8 

‘““Why? On account both of the present situation and of 
the future. We wish to do the wise and right thing now: 
If it is going to rain we wish to go to the house; if it is not 
going to rain we wish to continue our walk. So much for 
the present, but we are also concerned about the future. If 
we can use this present instance to help us hereafter to fore- 
tell more accurately which clouds do mean rain and which 
do not, then on future occasions we shall more surely know 
what to do. For the sake of the present we wish to judge as 
carefully now as we can, using all pertinent past experience 
to help us. For the sake of the future we wish to test our 
present judgment that we may know wherein it was justified 
and wherein not, so as hereafter to judge better in the light 
of present experience.”’ 

‘“You have said so much I am a bit confused.” 

“You asked about the complete act of thought. Just 
plain thinking tells us what to expect next. The complete 
act of thinking is to make surer of our thought by taking the 
steps necessary to give greater reliability.” 

‘‘What are these steps?” 

‘‘Let us consider each step one at a time. What is the 
situation calling forth the thought? The baby cries; we 
must do something; we don’t know what to do. pp. situation 
Or more generally: A situation calls to action, calling for 
but we have no response ready; we must act, Moe 
but we do not know what to do. Two things I should like 
here to emphasize, the call or drive to action, and the lack 
of a suitable response certainly appropriate.”’ 


236 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Ts this lack what Dewey calls the difficulty and is that 
the cause of the thinking?” 
‘This lack is what Dewey calls the difficulty, 


The difficulty ; 
does not but let us be clear, the difficulty does not impel 
tte us to action.” 


‘“But it does impel us to think, doesn’t it.” 

‘“‘T cannot agree with you. A difficulty as such does not 
impel. The drive to thought comes from the drive to 
action. We think because that is the only way, seeing 
that we face a difficulty, in which to secure action. I 
should say the difficulty, the lack of the behavior pattern, 
is the occasion but not the cause of the thinking. The 
thinking comes because the organism still struggles to 
continue the action.” 

“Do you call this one step or two?” 

“‘T like to say that these constitute the first two steps: 
First is the drive to action; second is the presence of a diffi- 
culty, the lack of an appropriate response or lack of appro- 
priate behavior-pattern.”’ 

‘What is the third step?” 

‘To answer this, ask what the mother will do when the 
baby cries. She will notice the kind of ery and consider the 

me situation so as to see what is probably causing 

Reet the cry and this in order that she better may 

know what to do. More generally: The third 

step is an examination of the situation to narrow the task for 

thought, to locate and define the problem, so as to facilitate 

the arising of appropriate suggestions for solving the prob- 
lem.”’ 

‘This step will sometimes take a long time, won’t it?” 

‘At times, yes; at other times a moment or two may 
suffice. There is every gradation.” 

‘And is the fourth step the arising of suggestions for a 
solution?” 





THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 237 


“Ves, exactly that; in theoretical terms, the arising of 
hypotheses; in practical terms, the coming of suggested 
behavior-patterns. Psychologically and _logi- 
cally, they are both the same.” 

‘‘And what step is the testing?” 

‘Testing gives us two steps: fifth, elaborating the impli- 
cations of the hypothesis; and sixth, trying out by actual 
test one or more of the implications.”’ 

“You are wading in deep water now. I am lost com- 
pletely. I don’t believe I do anything like your fifth and 
sixth steps when I think; John Dewey may, but not I.” 

“Oh, yes, you do. Consider this mother. She is, let us 
say, not sure whether the baby cries because he is cold or 
because he has colic. She listens intently to the Eiahoratne 
kind of crying and notices the baby’s move- the 
ments; she concludes tentatively that he is cold. ae ns 
This listening and noticing make up step 3, the tentative 
conclusion that he is cold is step 4. Now she says to 
herself: ‘I’ll see; if he is merely cold, more cover better 
tucked in should warm him in a few minutes.’ This think- 
ing if etc., then etc., is putting the tentative conclusion to 
work as an hypothesis; and this is what we called 
‘elaborating the implications of the hypothesis.’ If the 
baby is cold, covering him more warmly is the practical 
implication.’ 

“You mean that you take the hypothesis or suggested 
solution and ask what it tells you to do or to expect. This 
is what you mean by ‘elaborating the implications,’ is it 
not?” 

‘““Exactly so.” 

‘‘And then step 6 is testing to see if what you are told to 
do or to expect, is really the right thing?” 

‘“‘Precisely.”’ 

‘“‘And how do you test?”’ 


Suggested 
solutions 


238 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Tf the implications tell you something to do, you do it 
and see if the trouble is relieved. If the implications tell 
Tents you something to expect, you look for an in- 
trying out the stance and note what happens. If what was 
implications ~~ foretold does happen, then it looks as if the 
hypothesis is correct.” 

‘‘Can you illustrate the latter?’ 

“Yes. Before the planet Neptune had been seen, it was 
noticed that the outermost planet Uranus (outermost so 
far as then known) was leaving its (supposedly) proper orbit. 
What could be the cause? (Step 2 of the thinking process.) 
Closer examination (step 3) confirmed the general fact and 
gave details. Thereupon certain astronomers formed the 
hypothesis (step 4) that there was another planet further 
out from the sun than Uranus which was deflecting Uranus 
from its otherwise proper path. They then calculated where 
such a planet would have to be (step 5) thus to pull Uranus 
out of its path. If the calculations were right, they would 
know where to look for the new planet. They did look 
(step 6) and sure enough the new planet was found and later 
called Neptune. Later careful calculations of both planets 
(steps 5 and 6 repeated) have confirmed the conclusion thus 
reached. The difficulty of the wandering of Uranus is ex- 
plained. The once hypothetical planet is now a known fact 
(Neptune).” 

“Suppose covering the baby more warmly does not stop 
his crying?” 

‘Then the mother may take up the colic hypothesis (step 
4), make some deductions from it (step 5), try these out 
(step 6), and observe the results. If the baby then stops 
crying (and didn’t stop for the warm covering), presumably 
it was colic and not the cold that was troubling him.” 

“Do you think the mother of a crying baby is going to be 
concerned to follow these steps? I don’t believe it. I think 


THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 238 


she will do just what mothers have always done, try first 
one thing and then another till she finds something to 
stop the crying.” 

‘‘There are several things to be said in reply. 
First, I seem to think more highly of mothers 
than you. Most of the mothers I know do think whenever 
and wherever baby is involved, and more in these days 
than ever before. Second, I have nowhere said when any- 
one will think or that anyone will think. All I have said 
is that if one does think sufficiently his (or her) thinking 
will show essentially these steps.” 

“Do you mean that the steps must always follow each 
other in this order?” | 

“No, I do not so think. Dewey himself explains that 
he does not mean us to understand a chronological order.” 

‘What I think happens is this. If the baby gens togical, 
cries a little, the mother will ‘guess’ that he is not 
cold and call to his older sister to see that he is chronglogica 
properly covered. If no more crying, well and good; no 
further thought is given to the matter, and we cannot say 
that there had been a complete act of thought. If, however, 
erying continues, more careful thought is given till the 
household has exhausted its resources. This may well have 
included all the steps of a complete act of thought. If still 
no solution and the baby still cries, then the physician is 
called in and he repeats the steps on a more professional 
scale. If still there is no satisfactory solution, higher ex- 
perts may be called in and the process carried out with 
all the refinements known to science.”’ 


Incomplete 
thinking 


1‘'Tn speaking of ‘steps’ it is perhaps natural to suppose that something 
chronological is intended, and from that it is presumably a natural conclusion 
that the steps are taken in a temporal sequence in the order taken above. 
Nothing of this sort, however, is intended. The analysis is formal, and indi- 
cates the logical ‘movements’ involved in an act of critical thought.” Journal 
of Philosophy, 19:29. 


240 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“And you think it is essentially the same process repeated 
over and over again?” 

“Yes, with ever increasing consciousness. At the first, 
there is so little conscious thought that the steps are 
aborted and run, as it were, together. With increasing 
conscious consideration the steps emerge with increasing 
definiteness.”’ 

“TI heard an old farmer say, ‘It can’t be a coon, for 
those are not coon tracks.’ What step was he using?” 

‘Clearly steps 5 and 6 ‘telescoped’ together, thus reject- 
ing the hypothesis (step 4) that it was a coon which had com- 
mitted, I suppose, some depredation.” 

“And you think if we look closely we can see in any think- 
ing worthy the name these six steps?” 

“Yes, that’s what I think.” 

“One thing troubles me about the mother and the crying 
baby. I agreed that the difficulty was practical, namely, 
what to do, but I thought the problem would be not what is 
the matter with the baby, but what to do when a baby is cold 
or has the colic. You seemed to assume that the mother 
knows what to do if only she knows what the trouble is.” 

“I quite see your difficulty. I did assume that the mother 
knew what to do if the baby were merely cold. Under other 
circumstances the problem might, as you suggest, be else- 
where or it might even lie in both places. In the last instance 
I should prefer to say that one practical situation involves 
two problems, first, what is wrong, second, how shall we 
remedy such a wrong. Each problem would then repeat the 
same six steps.” 

‘‘T notice you were careful earlier not to say that the solu- 
tion was proved to be correct. You qualified 
your statement each time—‘it looks as if,’ ‘it 
might be presumed.’ Was this intentional?” 

“Yes. Final and complete proof may be a very difficult 
thing. It is wiser to be cautious.” 


Difficulty of 
final proof 


THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 241 


“T don’t see it that way. If the solution works, doesn’t 
that prove it? What more do you wish?”’ 

“Tt often happens that two or more hypotheses will work 
equally well in a great number of specific instances. For a 
long time the hypothesis that dew falls from the sky was 
accepted as true. It seemed to work: dew is not found under 
trees or other cover, nor on cloudy nights. But after a while 
instances were found where this hypothesis would not work 
and eventually a different hypothesis was formed that so 
far explains all the present known facts.” 

“T notice even here you are cautious. You say ‘so far 
explains’ and the ‘present known facts.’”’ 

“You are right. One should be cautious. The future 
may at any time upset our present thinking.” 

“You said earlier that this Dewey analysis had greatly 
influenced American teaching. I do not care to dispute your 
Influence of Statement, but I fail to see in what has been so 
the Dewey far said any good reason for expecting so far- 
ena reaching a result. Won’t you explain?” 

‘“‘TDo you know that some years ago most normal schools 
followed the Herbartian Five Formal Steps in their teach- 
ing methods?” 

Say ean? 

‘And do you know that these are giving way and largely 
to teaching through problems?” 

“T have noticed something like that.” 

“T think the more you notice the more you'll agree. Well, 
I am myself in no doubt that much of this change is due to 
this analysis and its allied theory.” 

“You give it credit for the problem method of teaching. 
Do you think it deserves similar credit for what I hear called 
the ‘project method’ of teaching?” 

“Ves, it and its allied philosophy.” 

“T still don’t quite see why teaching should be so much 


242 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


concerned. Won't you explain? Why is a problem better 
than the five formal steps?”’ 

“In order to answer suppose we list the separate steps 
Thelstepa ia in the complete act of thought and see how 
the complete learning is fostered by using them. 
act of thought 1 A situation arouses an impulse or tendency 

to pursue a certain course of action. 
The baby’s crying stirs the mother to seek to relieve him. 


Unexpected movements in Uranus stir the astronomer to 
try to explain these movements. 


2. A difficulty appears: how to continue the given course 
is not known; there is no appropriate way of responding 
known or immediately available. 

The mother does not know what to do for the baby. The 


astronomer has no satisfactory explanation for the move- 
ments of Uranus. 


3. An examination of the situation is made to locate and 
define the difficulty more precisely. 
The mother listens to the baby and considers his move- 
ments. The astronomers measure carefully the deviation of 
Uranus from what had been expected and consider alt 


possible interfering causes. Each is meanwhile considering 
all the facts with reference to possible solutions. 


4. Suggested solutions arise: hypotheses are formed, 
behavior patterns are suggested. 
The baby is cold or perhaps has colic. Uranus is at- 


tracted by some hitherto unknown planet yet more distant 
from the sun. 


5. Implications (one or more) are drawn from each sug- 
gested solution, each hypothesis. | 
If the baby is cold, covering him more warmly will relieve 


his discomfort. If a planet is attracting Uranus, we should 
see it in such and such part of the sky. 


eee ee 


THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 243 


6. Actual trial is made to see whether the deduced impli- 
cations hold. 


Does the baby stop erying when covered? Do we find the 
new planet where we were told to look, and is it such as to 
explain the aberrations of Uranus? 


7. A solution is accepted in the light of the tests made. 


Of course there is no problem till the second step leads on 
toward the third, but let us ask how the problem guides the 
process after that. In step 3 the problem as a 
conscious formulation is emerging into defi- ashe 
niteness, but even so the presence of the felt guides the 
difficulty thus seeking to define itself more sie 
narrowly guides the thought process. The ; 
mother’s anxiety (felt difficulty as to what may be the 
trouble and what she should do) causes her to consider all 
the signs of discomfort shown by the baby and to bring to 
bear all she knows about such. The search to define the 
problem and the accompanying preliminary search for pos- 
sible solutions each goes on in the light of the problem as thus 
far seen. Data are sorted out, the more promising from the 
less, and the more promising are given further consideration. 
All of this means that the whole situation is considered in 
the light of its bearing on the problem. Consciously to reject 
any data as not pertinent means a relating (in a negative 
sense) of these data. Consciously to accept any data as 
pertinent is to organize all such about the problem.” 

“Tf I understood you then in the third step the problem 
actually guides the examination and organizes the whole 
situation in its varying relationship to the problem and 
probable solution. Am I right?” 

“Yes, that is the way I see it.” 

“Couldn’t you illustrate with a school problem or some- 
thing more nearly like it?” 


244 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Suppose the question is as to why New York, which 
was once smaller than Philadelphia, won its preéminence 
Illustration  2mong American cities. A class studying this 
from would have, as step 3, a study of the facts 
geography 4s to when and how Philadelphia was once 
ahead of New York and the facts as to wherein New York 
is ahead now and when this came about. While this 
definition of the problem was in process there would be a 
preliminary study to see what explanations for the change 
of status should be considered. This one step 3 would thus 
involve a close study and evaluation (from the point of view 
of pertinency) of a vast deal of information. Much would 
be lightly dismissed as not pertinent to the problem, but 
much would be considered as highly significant. A very 
considerable organization of data would certainly result just 
here, and all by reason of felt relationship to the problem. 
The problem is here the guiding and organizing feature.” 

“Ves I see now, but how about the other steps?” 

“Sten 4, the arising of suggested solutions, shows a similar 
influence of the problem. Any solution to be considered at 
all must be a way of looking at pertinent data that promises 
to remove the difficulty. The arising of a suggested solution 
is then a promising arrangement of data. In the Philadel- 
phia-New York problem, if one suggests that New York has 
a better harbor, we have at once a relating of harbor to 
commerce and this to city size and importance. If the 
Erie canal is suggested, at once comes a relating of East 
and West, with the mountains as a trade barrier and the 
Erie canal as one way of getting around the barrier, with 
consequent effect on the commerce of New Yorkies 
word, any suggested solution worth considering does in- 
volve more or less of the data pertinent to the problem 
and an arrangement of these that at least promises to 
solve the problem.” 


i ee 


THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 245 


“It seems then that again the problem acts to select 
pertinent data and to organize such into some connected 
point of view.” Resin the 

“Yes, the problem again selects and organ- problem 
izes. Thinking is thereby directed along both selects and 

: organizes 
these lines.” 

‘““And does the same hold of steps 5 and 6?” 

“Yes, in much the same way. The elaboration of implica- 
tions (step 5), the opening up of the content of the hypothe- 
sis, is to get implications pertinent to the solution of the 
problem. And the testing of these (step 6) is again as they 
bear upon the solution of the problem.”’ 

“It is interesting to see that in each step the problem 
selects and organizes.” 

“What organization results from the whole process?” 

“First of all, the accepted solution is an organization of 
all the facts and features recognized as pertinent in the 
situation, such a way of looking at all these »,, peeulting 
as takes due account of all the pros and cons organization 
in the case. When we are justly satisfied that of e*Petience 
we know why New York outgrew Philadelphia, we have a 
great deal of data, historical, geographic, and economic, 
reduced to an orderly arrangement of cause and effect. 
Second, if the search for a satisfactory solution has led to 
the rejection of any unsatisfactory hypotheses, then each 
of these makes its contribution of organization, because we 
see why it was rejected and thus see more clearly wherein 
ies the satisfactormess of the accepted solution. Third, 
the search to define the problem, the search for possible hy- 
potheses, the elaboration of the implications of the various 
hypotheses, and the testing of these by actual trial — al? 
these cause a conscious and critical survey of the field in 
which the problem is located. In this third kind of organ- 
ization, negative conclusions (that thus and so does not bear 


246 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


on the problem) will be as true an organization of data and 
perhaps prove as valuable elsewhere as would positive con- 
clusions. All that is necessary to give valuable organization 
is that the conclusion be as consciously made as possible.” 

‘You spoke earlier of the drive or tendency to pursue the 
matter at hand. Does much turn on this?”’ 

‘Indeed it does. The greater the zeal, the more interest 
will there be in finding a satisfactory solution, the greater will 
| be the readiness in pertinent neurones; and so 
peda of the greater will be the effort, the readier will 

thoughts come, the more will satisfaction result 

from successful connections made, the greater will be the 
annoyance when promising leads disappoint. In a word, 
the laws of set and readiness are the better called into play 
by the zeal to push on with the matter at hand. And then 
will satisfaction and annoyance work favorably to the mat- 
ter at hand. What is done will be better done and better 
remembered.” | 

“T have heard the question asked as to whose problem is 
contemplated in problem solving, the pupil’s or the teacher’s? 


aN el Whose problem is contemplated and what 


lem, the difference does it make?”’ 
igual * “JT should think our previous discussions 
‘the pupil’s 


would answer that.” 

“You mean that it is from the pupil’s action that the 
pupil learns. Therefore it is the pupil’s problem that we 
wish?” 

“Exactly so. The more fully the pupil feels the problem 
and determines to solve it, the more fully do set and readi- 
ness, satisfaction and annoyance, help him to succeed and 
help him to learn from what he does.’’ 

“Tt seems to me that everything we said about mind-set 
and learning fits here.” 

“Tt does, exactly.” 


THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 247 


“And everything about ‘complete acts’ and purposeful 
activity.” 

“You are exactly right. Those discussions throw light 
here, and our recent discussions of meaning, thinking, and 
problem solving throw still further light.” 

“In the ‘complete act,’ we discussed how it might be 
hurtful for the parent or teacher to take unnecessarily one 
of the steps for the child. Would not the same 

: The child 
thing hold here?’’ eHonidinine 

“Precisely, and our conclusion there fits Self take 
here. As far as feasible the child should con- ‘* *¢?S 
sciously take each step himself, but the teacher may step 
in to save from defeat. In such a case he helps best by 
helping the child to help himself.” 

‘You have spoken as if there are only individual prob- 
lems. Might there not be group problems?”’ 

‘Indeed, yes. I should, in fact, hope that a good part 
of the day’s work of all the children above the 

: », Group 
very young would consist of group problems. NABER: 

“Would it not be well to divide a big prob- 
lem into smaller parts and let a small group work on one 
of the component parts?” 

“I think so, but let them report to the whole group in 
order that as far as feasible each individual shall in the end 
at least have thought through the whole work.” 

“Do you think geography can be taught wholly by prob- 
lems?” 

“Probably so, by problems and purposeful enterprises, 
but I question whether we shall always wish Teaching 
to teach by cutting out separate pieces of life subjects by 
and considering them separately as distinct Problems 
subjects. I think that as life seldom if ever presents 
geography by itself, perhaps it should accordingly not be 
taught by itself.’ 


248 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Do you think we have time to go into that now?” 

“T do not, but we must return to it after a while.”’ 

“How would you sum up what we have considered to- 
day? Iam afraid I may lose some part of it if we leave 
it like this.” 
kab ‘We have been discussing the complete act of 

thought. Ordinary practical thinking consists 
essentially of inferring from the situation at hand an expec- 
tation of whatit means. We can do this only because of the 
me con meanings we have previously formed of the like 
plete act things. Such thinking involves a step into the 
of thought = future and accordingly is liable to error. The 
complete act of thought is the full logical process by which 
one takes pains to make his thought reliable. Such an act of 
thought typically arises when a tendency to action has been 
hindered because no customary or tested meaning or proce- 
dure is available. The thinking is thus the effort to find a 
satisfactory meaning or plan of action. The measures for in- 
creasing reliability involve first the effort to get the best pos- 
sible suggestions as to the needed meaning or plan of action 
and second the effort to test the suggestions thus made. To 
get the most promising suggestions we examine carefully the 
situation of difficulty to locate the problem more precisely 
if that be possible and to arouse promising suggestions. To 
test a suggested solution (hypothesis) we first ask what 
would follow if it should be accepted, and second we put the 
matter to a trial to see whether the predicted does follow. 
If the predicted does follow from one hypothesis and so far 

as known from no other, we accept that hy- 
ae eae pothesis as the best available. | 
thinking, the ‘While these logical steps are to be seen in 
ernie the the degree that care in thinking is present it 

does not follow that they always appear with 
separate distinctness or in the order given. And if a given 


Stee 2 - 
ee 


ee a re 


eee ae 
=. Se a ee 


Sw. 


ee ee 


THE COMPLETE ACT OF THOUGHT 249 


situation of difficulty does not yield to the first informal 
efforts at solution, we shall frequently find repeated efforts 
made, increasing in conscious formality as the matter in- 
volved seems to warrant the more careful procedure. 

“We found the use of problem work increasing in educa- 
tional procedure, partly because it utilizes better the condi- 
tions favorable to learning, partly because it Value of 
better serves to organize for the learner the field problem 
of attention. A favorable set and readiness S°ving 
may be expected from the initial impulse, and this, by well 
known psychological principles, is likely to be enhanced by 
the thwarting which sets the problem. Besides both these, 
a problem itself has a challenge which arouses the alert mind 
to a peculiar endeavor. From these three factors distinctly 
favorable conditions for learning are more than likely. 

“As regards organization, we saw that the urge and the 
definiteness of the problem guides thinking first to the selec- 
tion and evaluation of pertinent data and second to the con- 
sequent joining of meanings in such a related and evaluated 
way as to result not only in the definite organization consti- 
tuting the solution, but also in a valuable mapping of the 
whole situation studied. The respective satisfaction and 
annoyance at accepted and rejected relationships, felt ac- 
cording to the degree of interest present, tends to fix these 
organizations in mind, while the fact that they were made 
in answer to practical thinking gives them the greater 
probability of practical application when related demands 
shall later arise.” 

“Do you not reckon thought as man’s strongest instru- 
mentality of control?”’ 
“'T certainly do.” 

“Do you know any better way to increase one’s effec- 
tiveness of thinking than by facing and solving many and 
varied problems felt by the learner to be vital to him?” 


Conclusion 


200 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 
“T know of no better way, nor any other that equals 1ti3 


“Tg that in essence what we have been discussing?” 
‘As I see it, yes.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Dewey — How We Think, Chap. 6. 
KibpaTrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 27, 


529. 





CHAPTER XVI 
Wuy EpvucaTIon 18 CHANGING 


‘‘Am I wrong in thinking that education is changing now 
more rapidly than ever before?”’ 

‘‘So far as I can tell, you are right, not wrong.” 

“Do you think the sober historian will bear us out?” 

“I do. I believe I could quote authorities Changes to 
if there were need.” be seen in 

“How is education changing? 1 see larger °¢ucation 
enrollments and larger and finer buildings, but I am not 
sure that I see better teaching than formerly.” 

‘According to our best information, we teach better to- 
day than they taught seventy-five years ago, provided we 
still believe in teaching the same things.” 

* Have there not then been changes in the curriculum?” 

‘Yes, great changes; not so much perhaps in the names 
of the subjects taught as in the content of what is taught.” 

“Do you mean that geography now is not Pye curric- 
the same as geography then?”’ ulum is 

“That’s just what I mean. Practically ‘2288 
all the subjects are greatly changed in content.” 

‘Even arithmetic?” 

‘““Yes, it has changed greatly, and ought to change more.” 

‘“Why has the content of the school subjects changed?” 

‘“‘For various causes. Speaking generally, because the 
«present civilization demands a richer content, but an 
additional reason is that we are studying the question with 
increasing knowledge and with less respect for mere tradi- 


tion;’’ 
251 


252 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Do you think that content has changed any more than 
aim or method? It seems to me that the intelligent teacher 
of to-day has very different aims from those 


Aims, too, 
are held by our predecessors, and consequently uses 
ene a different conception of method.” 


‘How do aims differ? I teach algebra and geometry, and . 


I am not aware of any specially different aims from what 
my teachers had.” 

“Tt seems true that certain departmental teachers are less 
likely to feel the changes than others. This is more likely 
to be true where, as in geometry, the content doesn’t change 
much with the times.” 

“How are aims different? I repeat my question. I did 
not hear a real answer.” 

“T think in those older days teachers didn’t so much ask 
what they were aiming at beyond the textbooks — and these 
were pretty well fixed by tradition. If the children could 
recite the content of the textbook even by mere rote 
memory, and if they kept quiet and were otherwise ‘good,’ 
the teachers felt that they had done their duty. Now- 
adays many intelligent teachers are very much concerned 
with public questions, with social trends; and they are 
asking how they can best teach the children in the light of 
pressing public demands.”’ 

“Do you mean by ‘public questions’ such matters as an 
immigration policy, the relations of capital and labor, or 
the tariff?’ 

‘Those are some of the things I had in mind.” 

“But surely you don’t think it is the duty 
of the school to deal with such controversial matters. Think 
what trouble we should bring down on us if we attempted 
to teach children the answers to such questions.” 

“Teach answers to these questions, no; but to introduce 
the older children to such questions, make them intelligent 


Controversial 
questions 





WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 253 


with regard to them, get them to feel more keenly what is 
involved, yes.” 

‘“You said a moment ago ‘teach children’; I wonder if 
the difference between the old and new is not pretty well 
indicated by the contrasted phrases, ‘teach qeaching 
- subjects,’ ‘teach children.’ What say you?” children, 

“T think the contrast has a significant lesson 2°t Subjects 
for us, but of course we don’t teach unless children learn. 
So teaching children must mean that they learn something. 
But I quite agree with you that we are properly concerned 
first with our children that they shall grow, and only second- 
arily with subject-matter that it be learned. The older view 
seems to reverse this order.” | 

“And you think that the better education of to-day differs 
from the best of the past in aim, in content, and in method, 
all three?”’ 

“T do. I certainly do so think, and furthermore I believe 
the difference is of very great significance to us.” 

“Why should there be such a difference? What has 
brought it about?” 

“Vou are asking a big question. I hesitate to go ito 
1h? 

“T wish you would. I have heard many express a wish 
that we might discuss it. What do you think is the main 
thing that has made the change?”’ What has 

‘Science.”’ brought these 

“You surprise me. I thought you would a 
have said industry or our many inventions and discoveries.” 

‘“‘T think science lies at the bottom of our discoveries and 
our inventions; without it they would not have gcence, 
been; and our discoveries and inventions in discovery and 
turn underlie the changes in modern industry. ™”°""™"S 
You have only to mention steam, electricity, and chemistry 
to see more fully what I mean.’’ 


204 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘And all these inventions and their applications change 
life and the conditions of life?”’ 

‘“‘Rxactly so; and the change is seen to be the greater 
when we remember that this country is as yet new, that 
but recently it was rural, agricultural, even pioneer.” 

‘“T see well enough these changes in life; even in my life- 
time they have been many; but I don’t see the bearings of 
all this on education and schools. What difference does it 
make to them?” 

‘“Much in every way.’ 

“How? Be specific.” 

‘“‘Consider first that the child is educated by the home, 
the church, the community, the larger world without, as 
sapl ea truly as by the school. In fact when you take 
not the only all into account, the ‘little red schoolhouse’ 
educative played a much smaller part in the total educa- 
mar tion of our forebears than many seem to think.” 

‘“How so?” 

‘Because most of the population went to school only a 
few months in the year and for not many years. Many 
pioneer men and women had even less than this meager 
schooling.” 

“Yes, and they had correspondingly little education. 
They were a crude lot, let me tell you.” 

‘Crude seems a needlessly harsh word. For one thing, 
they had character — stronger, some people think, than 
that of their less crude descendants. They 
conquered the wilderness, and that took not 
only bravery but resourcefulness. Life for them 
was hard, but it was hearty and vigorous. 

“T should like, too, to deny that they lacked education. 
Abraham Lincoln was one of them — one of the crude ones 
if you wish — but he had an education far and away better 
than most have who now live so much more easily.” 


Frontier 
education 





WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 255 


‘Well, Lincoln was an exception, and he did have access 
to some of the best English literature. I suppose we may 
account for his wonderful literary style by his close study of 
a few great classics.” 

‘‘Lincoln’s style is far from constituting him or his char- 
acter. I was thinking of much more than that. I should 
think of Lincoln as well educated even if he had _ 
not left us the Gettysburg speech or the Second pea ‘ale 
Inaugural Address.”’ 

“Do you mean that Lincoln had a great heart and a 
great character?” 

‘Yes, I mean all that and more. He was not educated in 
the sense of having acquired the conventional signs of a 
cultivated and refined life. But he knew life, he knew 
people, he knew the big issues of his time, he had thought 
himself through to firm convictions. Moreover he had built 
strong interests in the things that count — his heart was 
right. And not only these things, he was capable also — he 
knew how to bring things to pass. In a word he seems to 
me to have made of himself the character needed by his 
times. However great the demands, he rose to meet 
them.” 

“Is that what you mean by education?” 

“Yes, so far as these things can be acquired. Education 
means nothing less than all this; and Lincoln had it 
all.” 

‘But we seem to have got off the track. We were asking 
whether our forebears were educated.” 

‘So we were, and Lincoln was brought in to show the 
possibilities of that older education. As schooling, it was at 
best slight, generally much worse than that; but the life 
itself educated.” 

“Do you think the life of that day educated those children 
any better than the life of the present day educates our 


256 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


children? People laugh at moving pictures, but the ‘movies ; 
are a liberal education in themselves. And there is, besides, 
the radio and all the other modern inventions.”’ 

“Time for time, demand for demand, they did better then 
than do we.” 

“How so? I don’t get your meaning.”’ 

“The demands now are greater than the demands then. 
Life is now vastly more complex in detail, and we are far 
Frontier life more tied up with others about us even to our 
as aneduca- most distant neighbors. Our problems are much 
tional agency more difficult.” 

“T suppose our times are more difficult; I think you are 
right there; but our schools are much better. Why say the 
education of that day was in comparison better? Or did 
you mean to say that?” 

“Yes I meant just that. Ill put it this way. The 
demands now are relatively greater, and the opportunities 
for learning now relatively less. Education suffers accord- 
ingly.” 

“The greater demands of the present I’ve seen and ad- 
mitted, but the greater relative opportunities of the past I 
don’t see.”’ ; 

“In that day the home and the immediate community 
made up almost the whole of life. Food, clothing, shelter —. 
ah Pee almost everything that went to the making of 
relatively lezer eLe nay come mostly from the home, or at most 
efficient asan from the near neighborhood. The home sup- 
Seue rn plied the corn and wheat; the neighboring mill 

ground it. The crossroads blacksmith did prac- 
tically all the necessary iron work. Clothes came from wool 
or cotton grown at home, spun at home, dyed at home, woven 
at home, and at home made into garments. Shoes were 
made at home, near by at the farthest.” 

“T evant all that, but where is the education?” 





WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 257 


“Exactly in all this. With all these things going on right 
at hand the children were early introduced to life itself. 
They shared with their parents in all these 

y : How edu- 
necessary operations for supplying the elemen- Qaiion came 
tary constituents of life. Not only were skills from sharing 
needed and developed. but insight and attitudes tae 
were gained. It required no far-flung imagina- 
tion to see the closely woven fabric of their immediate social 
life. Social insight came so easily that it seemed all but 
instinctive. And with insight came positive response. If 
any shirked, all saw, and in obvious truth all suffered. The 
needed social attitudes came almost inevitably, so close 
and apparent was connection between cause and effect.” 

“This reminds me of something we said a few weeks 
ago.” 

“What is that?” 

“That education is such a remaking of life as brings 
growth, and that growth runs along the three lines of out- 
look and insight, attitudes and appreciations, and _ tech- 
niques of control.” 

‘You mean that the children of these early days gained 
outlook and insight?”’ 

“Yes, it was all but inevitable from the kind of lives they 
lived, but of course they gained outlook and insight only for 
life as it was then seen.”’ 

‘And so, too, with attitudes and appreciations?” 

“Yes, life was definite in requiring and giving a just 
appreciation of what was then needed. And of course 
techniques of control came most certainly of all. yoy the 
The girl must learn to cook, spin, weave, sew, girl then 
and all the many other things that made up ‘4e¢ 
women’s work then.” | 

‘“That’s how she learned household economy in those 
days?”’ 


258 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“BHxactly. She had to; and what is even more, she saw 
that she had to, and she never questioned it.” 

“That sounds like coercion, only very effective coercion.” 

““Yes, so effective it was seldom felt as such.” 

‘‘And so ceased to be coercion?” 

“Yes. The girl did these things of inner choice, only de- 
murring when the task extended beyond her powers.” 

‘‘So she did learn.” 

‘Certainly she learned. First, she had an inherent motive 
impelling her to learn —'a real set with all its readiness — 
second, the situation to be met told her and the rest of the 
family when she succeeded and when she failed.’’ 

‘““Yes, and the same situation supplied satisfaction for 
suecess and annoyance for failure. There is no doubt that 
she learned.”’ 

‘And her brother?”’ 

“Tt was the same with him. He helped on the farm. He 
carried the corn to mill. He held the horse while the black- 

smith shod him. He was an active participant 
Pop teamed nell that his father did?) 
“How about the larger political life?” 

‘It was simple; the problems were less complicated — 
partly because less well understood; but the boy heard and 
saw everything that went on. Local affairs were out in the 
open. When court week came the boy would go to see any 
specially mteresting case tried. Even the larger political 
meetings were so important that all attended or at least 
heard the matter discussed in detail at home.”’ 

‘‘But just think what children can see now! How can you 
ignore that?” 

“‘T don’t ignore it, but I still assert that, in proportion to 
what they were expected to learn, the children of that day 
learned more, relatively, than do our children.” 

“Do you mean that just living their lives itself taught 


WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 259 


them, whereas our children now do not by just living learn 
so large a proportion of what they need?”’ 

“Yes. That’s part of it. The children of those early days 
participated in the serious life of their parents. The common 
run of our city children nowadays are on-lookers. 

; : Restricted 
They may have a few duties required of them, opportunities 
but we and they know that they don’t feel any © present 
special responsibility for the success of the home. Se teiNed 
Relatively, they are onlookers and feel so. In the city homes 
of the well-to-do, children are economic drones and nui- 
sances. In that earlier life they were economic assets.” 

‘‘Do you mean that, accepting their due places as actual 
sharers, they were early educated to a sense of responsibil- 
ity in the family life?’ 

‘Yes; and children now not so sharing are in danger of 
growing up with too little sense of such responsibility.” 

‘Do you think any of the present wider social ills are due 
to an analogous lack of responsibility?” 

‘Indeed I do. We have trouble to get citizens to vote. 
They won’t accept responsibility for matters of public wel- 
fare. Our city government is notoriously bad.” 

‘*And you think the lives children now lead fail to educate 
them to meet these social demands?” 

‘““Yes. Government is too complex, too difficult to see, too 
far off. The children can’t seeit. Their parents even do not 
understand it. So children grow up neither ‘ 

: : ‘ : é omplexity of 
knowing nor: caring, still less doing anything present life 
about it.”’ an educative 

“What about labor and capital?” corm 

‘“‘TIt is too complicated to say much about, but at least one 
difficulty is that the children, whether of the ‘labor’ group 
or of the employing group, see or hear, at most, but one 
side of the economic problem. Division of labor, valuable 
as it is for production, has divided life, and people with it, 


260 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


into widely separated parts. Unless special pains be taken, 
no child will grow up seeing how one kind of work is related 
to another kind. Under such circumstances it is easy for 
the demagog to appeal to narrow and selfish interests.” 

“Does this general line of thought throw any light on 
the introduction of the various manual activities into the 
school?” 

“Ves, The older life gave children enough first hand 
contact with things to supply them not only with the per- 
wi sonal and homekeeping skills but also with the 

y our 4 : : ’ 
schools are Varied meanings of practical affairs necessary 
using manual {o practical thinking. Now, unless the schools 
activities 
grow up mentally starved so far as concrete things and their 
meanings go, not to mention the lack of useful skills.” 

‘And working with such things fits the active manipula- 
tive life natural to children?” 

“That’s another way of looking at it and a good way 
too.” 

“Do I correctly understand that we are to think of educa- 
tion 2s all the influences that mold one’s life and that just 
plain natural living in those older and simpler days came 
fairly close to giving the whole of the all-round training 
then needed for such a simple life?”’ 

“Ves that’s well said.” 

‘‘ And that now with so many lines of work having left the 
home for the factory — large and distant factories at that — 
the home and community no longer supply the same sort of 
education they once did?” 

“Ves, Or you might say it in this way — that the school 
in that day had but a small part of the total educational 
work to carry. Now it has a much larger part.”’ 

“T don’t see why you put all these things on the 
school.”’ 


take special pains, many city children would 


= —_ = 


WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 261 


‘‘For the simple reason that they are not otherwise cared 
for. The school is the social institution made to care for all 
that would otherwise be neglected. You may 
not like it, but it is a fact. The school is the Pueraeoes 
residuary legatee so far as concerns social duties. duties other 
What the others won’t care for, the school must 88@2¢ies 

relinquish 
undertake.” 

“Don’t you think it weakens the family to have the school 
take up so many things that the family should care for?” 

“Don’t misunderstand‘me. I am trying neither to impoy- 
erish the home nor to relieve it of its proper duties. What I 
am trying to do is to recognize facts. The present family 
faces a different situation from the old family. I would 
strengthen the family in any way feasible, but we must not 
refuse to do the best possible by all the children. What the 
family cannot or will not do, the school must do. Possibly 
the rising generation, if better educated to face present condi- 
tions, will raise the status of family life in the next genera= 
tion.” 

“And are the other educative institutions—the church, the 
community, business life—in similar fashion yielding their 
former educative functions to the school?” 

‘No single answer will suffice. Much of business demands 
better general education than formerly, but business itself 
offers less in the way of apprenticeship. ‘No Basicnedas 
admission’ signs indicate too that childish ob- an educative 
servers are not welcome. Putting it all together, #8°2°Y 
it seems fair to say that business on the whole follows 
the general trend; it demands relatively more and offers 
relatively less. The schools must make good the difference.” 

“How about the community?” 

“T think we have already answered that. Social life is 
vastly more complex, which means at one and the same 
time that it too demands more and offers relatively less.’ 


262 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“T don’t quite see what you mean by ‘offers relatively 
less.’ How is this?” 

“T mean that the complexity of modern social and politi- 
cal life makes it harder to understand. More of it goes on 
unseen. So many things happen that each one thing gets less 
talked about at home. For these reasons young people see 
less of public affairs and hear less about them than formerly. 
The community in proportion to what it comprises offers 
smaller opportunities for the young to see how it works. 
Relative to demands, the community is less educative than 
formerly.” 

“Tsn’t part of the difference because we see the demands 
better than formerly?” 

More ‘What do you mean?”’ 

adequate ‘“‘T mean that the people of the frontier times 
insight now = saw clearly the situation close at hand and their 
children got practical skill and character training to fit the 
narrow range of their daily living, but none of them got 
insight enough not to waste our natural resources. Look 
at the school lands sold for a dollar an acre; and, as if that 
were not bad enough, see how often the proceeds were 
squandered besides.” 

“You mean that part of the present greater demand is 
owing to our greater insight into possibilities and dangers?” 

“Ves that’s just it; and I say that the simple life didn’t 
give broad insight then any more than it does now. I’ve 
lived in the country and I know.” 


“T am glad to agree with you that a very significant part 


of the difference between demands then and demands now 
is our present better insight into what is needed. It is part 
of our slowly accumulating stock of knowledge. The world 
has learned by experience. Your suggestion helps us to see 
this. I should like, however, to make clear that 1 have at 
no time wished a return to the simpler life of those early days. 


WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 263 


My sole idea has been to see why our schools now must 
carry a heavier load than schools were formerly supposed 
to carry.” 

‘And you still say that the school must make good the 
deficiency?” 

‘Yes, indeed; whether the greater demands come from a 
more complex civilization or from fewer educa- 

: ne The schools 
tional opportunities or from more adequate must carry 
insight, the result is the same. The schoo] what others 

“¢ leave 
must carry a greater burden. 

“Does this tell us anything about the problem of the 
rural school?”’ ) 

“Yes, it does; but I think we can generalize. Each school 
should consider on the one hand the educational demands 
facing its children and on the other hand the total educa- 
tional possibilities inherent in the lives the children are 
leading anyhow. With these two things in mind the school 
can decide on its task. What won’t come to the child other- 
wise, the school must, if possible, undertake.” 

“Will these considerations mean different curriculums for 
the rural school and the city school?” 

“Properly understood, each curriculum is unique to its 
own situation. Yes, the rural school must have a curriculum 
to suit its situation. So with the small city; so with the large 
city. So with East; so with West.” 

‘The school must always undertake to supply what 
would otherwise be lacking ?’’ 

“Yes, as far as it can.” 

“What about the church in these changing demands?” 

‘There are many delicate elements involved here, and 
people are not so well agreed on the answer. Certainly in 
some quarters there is a lessening of authority. Many new 
ideas are pressing for consideration. The outlook is not 
clear.” 


264 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Do you think we are passing through a period of 
peculiarly rapid readjustment, or is this rapidity of change 
going to decrease?” 

“T should say the contrary.” 

‘What! Do you mean that things are going to change 
more rapidly?”’ 
ireceatinote “T think they will.” | 
rapid changes ‘‘That’s a startling outlook. Why do you 
in the future think so?” 

‘What makes the changes?” 

“Life must change when we keep having so many new 
inventions and discoveries..” ) 

“And what makes inventions and discoveries? And are 
they likely to increase or decrease in number?” 

“Our scientists make the discoveries and I suppose our 
inventors, whoever they are, make the inventions?” 

‘And the inventions mainly depend on the discoveries?” 

Vasv? 

“Qo we come back to science and our scientists?” 

PONV aac 

‘And is science increasing or decreasing?” 

“Increasing, and increasing rapidly.” 

‘And an ever increasing science makes ever increasing 
discoveries?” 

“Yes, and I suppose that means ever increasing in- 
ventions, and that means ever increasing change.”’ 

“Ves, that’s the argument. Do you see any escape?” 

“No, not unless civilization somehow goes to pieces.” 

“Then you face not only inevitable change but the added 
fact that the change will itself become more rapid?” 

“Ves, I can see nothing else.” 

“T ean’t see that all this makes any difference to the 
schools. If we let you people run on the way you like, we 
should get clear away from practical school affairs? What 


WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 265 


possible concern is it of the school that there should or 
should not be rapid changes in social life?” 

‘“‘T think a great difference.” 

“T asked you what difference, not how great. I don’t see 
why we are concerned.” 

‘Do you think the school should so prepare young 
people that they can take charge of affairs SPE Nisan 
after we go?” prepare for 

“T certainly do. Don’t you?” Srperet fila nh 

“If we understand preparation rightly, yes. Suppose we 
say yes, and suppose you set out to prepare your pupils for 
that coming day, how can you prepare them. if you don’t 
know what that day will be like?”’ 

“Why, then, I couldn’t prepare them. How could I, if 
I don’t know what I am preparing them for?” 

“But things are changing; do you know what new inven- 
tions will be made?”’ 

“Certainly not.” 

“So you don’t know what changes will be introduced 
into life?’’ 

“No, but some things are fixed and settled.” 

‘‘And you can prepare for them?” 

‘Vag? 

‘‘And not for the new ones?” 

‘‘Not exactly.” 

“Why say not exactly?” 

“YT was thinking that I might prepare the children to 
expect changes; that would be some help, I believe.” 

‘‘And prepare them to adjust themselves to , 

: P ‘ . ow to pre- 
a changing situation, adjust themselves to pare for an 
change itself, perhaps?” unknown 

“Yes, I think so.” Sa 

“Imagine two teachers: one knows exactly what his 
pupils will face, what they will face and all they will face; 


266 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


the other knows (or thinks he knows) some things they will 
face, but he mainly knows that they will face inevitably and 
increasingly rapid change in unknown directions. Now I 
ask, should the teachers manage their schools alike.”’ 

“JT think not. The fixed-civilization teacher will know in 
advance the answers to the questions his pupils will meet. 
Deetaration He can teach these answers just as his pupils 
in a static will need to know them. But the changing- 
civilization = Givilization teacher can’t do that. Really I 
don’t know what he can do.”’ 

“Teaching for him becomes a different problem, doesn’t 
1b?! / 

“Tt certainly does. I had never thought of it in just that 
way before.” 

“The fixed-civilization teacher can teach his pupils what 
to think, you say, but the other cannot.” 

“How about how to think? I mean how to attack prob- 
lems? How to judge of difficult situations? Couldn’t the 
Procerattion changing-civilization teacher do that?” 
in a dynamic “And if so the schools would be run dif- 
civilization = ferently, would they not?” 

“Ves I see now. I begin to see. As long as people looked 
on the world as fixed and static, they had children mainly 
memorize answers to the questions they might expect to 
meet. Memorization and adjustment to a fixed order, 
habituation I mean; that’s the kind of school we should 
expect, and that’s the kind they did have. It’s certainly 
interesting.”’ 

“Yes, and if people face a rapidly shifting and changing 
world, changing in unexpected ways and in unexpected 
directions, then what?”’ 

“Why, their education would stress thinking and methods 
of attack and principles of action rather than merely what 
todo. Yes, I see it. Such a school would try to make self- 





WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 267 


reliant and adaptable people; and are not the better of our 
newer schools working just exactly along these lines? This 
is all very interesting.’ 

‘But we agreed above that even in a shifting civilization 
some things would stay fixed. Wouldn’t selfishness be one 
of those fixed things?”’ 

“At any rate the danger of selfishness is always with us. 
Then you would have us prepare against this?” 

“Yes, but I don’t know exactly how to do it.” 

“And now we face education for morals.” 

“T am glad, for I have long wished that we might dis- 
cuss moral and religious education.” | 

“We shall probably have to postpone that particular 
topic for a while, but at least some part must 


° ” Certain 
come in here. eerabds 
“What do you mean?” ARN 
unchanging 


“Certain human traits, as the tendency to 
selfishness, we shall always have with us; and new forms of 
selfishness will constantly be possible with the new modes 
of living.” 

“T wish you would illustrate.” 

“Take the automobile. It is a relatively new invention. 
Has it given us any new example of selfishness?” 

“TI think so. What the newspapers call the ‘road hog’ 
is at any rate a peculiar development with the auto- 
mobile.” 

‘What is the conclusion of this?” 

‘That in morals we cannot depend merely on fixed rules, 
a set of don’t’s and do’s. We do wish a number of very spe- 
cific habits; but we also wish to go as far as we ithe 
can toward building up conscious unselfishness Cake en 
as a trait of character in our young. Specific 
unselfishnesses, yes, in so far as we can foretell; but, if 
possible and as far as possible, we wish to enthrone the 


268 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


more general conception of unselfishness so as to take 
better care of the new cases that are bound to occur.” 

“You mean, if I understand, that we must teach princi- 
ples and not mere habits?” 

‘“That’s another way of saying it. Any words we use have 
their pitfalls, but rightly understood, yes, I agree.” 

‘‘When has a thing really been taught? I am sick of this 
talking of teaching morals when so many think that if you 
give orders often enough or require children to memorize 
rules of conduct you are teaching morals.” 

“T agree thoroughly with you, and should like to say that 
we haven’t taught till the child has learned. It is just like 
selling and buying.” 

‘“What do you mean?”’ 

‘‘Just this. The salesman hasn’t sold unless the customer 
buys. The teacher hasn’t taught unless the child learns. 


I believe in the proportion: 
When learn- ; 
ing has teaching : learning = selling : buying.”’ 
taken place 


“That’s very good. I like it. But some- 
thing still remains. When has the child learned?” 

‘We had that once before. The child has not learned 
until he cAN and wit do the thing. That is particularly our 
answer in the matter of morals. It takes all three, SEE, 
CAN, and witL; but to me ‘Wit he do it’ is the main one.” 

‘And all this means a new type of teaching?” 

‘““How so?”’ 

“Our older school concerned itself mainly with CaN. 
Can this child repeat these words? Can this child perform 
these skills?” 

‘Was that because the school in that day and time could 
expect the home and community life to teach the sEE and 
WILL?” 

“In good part so, I think. Yes, I agree with you.” 


WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 269 


“‘Tf I understand you, the changing times have changed 
largely the duty of the school?”’ 

“Yes, that’s it.” 

‘‘And the new duties demand a broadening and enrich- 
ing of the curriculum?” 

‘Yes, otherwise our rising generation will 
not sEE its duties and obligations and possibilities.” 

‘‘And it requires, too, a new method because the home 
and community life has lost much of its former educative 
possibilities?”’ 

‘‘A new method? I don’t see that.” 

‘I mean that in a former day vital activities surrounded 
the child on all sides. His life was filled with purposeful 
activities of real worth and he saw and felt the 4 ..w 
worth. Now the usual home has for the child method 
few of such vital activities. His life is largely eede4 
reduced to mere play which does not have all the needed 
educative values. The school as usual must make good the 
deficit. ‘The school accordingly must introduce activities, 
purposeful activities, in order to give the child the vigorous 
living that he needs. This of course is method in the broad 
sense.” 

‘“We have thus a need for a new type of school.”’ 

“Yes, but many not thinking deeply and knowing only 
the schools of their childhood consider the needed new 
changes as fads and frills.” 

‘‘So this is why the old three R’s no longer suffice?” 

‘“‘T think so.”’ 

“And why we see everywhere signs of a change in 
method?” 

‘Yes, there is fundamental need for new aims, new con- 
tent, and new method.” 

‘So far nothing has been said about a new science 
of education. That seems to me one of the most potent 


Résumé 


270 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


factors in changing aim, content, and method of educa- 
tion.” 

‘‘So it has been, but it has come largely as an attendant 
result of the causes previously discussed. ‘The need for a 
Thee different type of school has, as was to be ex- 
study of pected, brought consciousness to the problem.” 
aria Me ‘‘And this new consciousness of the problem 
working itself out has given us the new study of edu- 
cation?” 

‘‘Exactly so.” | 

‘‘T am surprised that nothing has been said of democracy 

in connection with the new education.” 
Democacy “Well, for one thing we cannot mention 
andthenew everything at once. Democracy I think has 
Stet been at work slowly remaking the school to a 
greater sensitiveness to child nature, and perhaps especially 
to make us see that we must get our children to where they 
can and will think for themselves. In both it has worked 
hand in hand with science.”’ 

‘“But you think the most fundamental causes for a new 
conception of education have beer the new industrial order?”’ 

‘““Yes, that and its own underlying cause, 
science.”’ 

“And you think that with a greatly changed civilization 
has come a shifting in the relative duties of home, school, 
community, and church in the education of the child?” 

‘‘A shifting first of relative opportunities of home and 
community, and a consequent shifting of relative duties of 
the school.” 

‘What about those who say, ‘What was good enough for 
me is good enough for my children ’?”’ 

“They are simply blind. They know they live in a 
changed world, but they do not see that the changed world 
makes new and greater demands on the schools.” 


Summary 


WHY EDUCATION IS CHANGING 271 


“And what about the three R’s and ‘fads and frills’?”’ 

“As for ‘fads and frills,’ I should not like to say that 
teachers have made no mistakes, but I must say that the 
three R’s no longer suffice to do for children what the times 
demand. We must enrich the curriculum and we must 
change our methods. To make these changes is no more a 
matter of fad or frill than is the building of garages. If we 
live in the modern world we must face its duties.” 

‘Have we already made most of the needed changes?”’ 

‘We are not yet well begun.” 

‘‘Then you look for yet greater changes?”’ 

“T certainly do.”’ 

“And they will cost yet more money.” 

“They certainly will.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Dewey — School and Society, Ch. 1. 

Dewey — The Educational Situation, Part I. 

CuBBERLEY — Changing Conceptions of Education. 

KanpeEt (ed.) — Twenty-five Years of American Education, Ch. 3. 


CHAPTER GXVIL 
SUBJECT-MATTER AND THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS 


‘All these years I have been thinking I knew what subject- 
matter is, but recently I heard it discussed, and now I don’t 
Aris eoanine feel at all clear about it.” 
of subject- ‘“Moral: Don’t discuss; or perhaps better, 
Bicrnct don’t think.” 

“Ts your trouble that you don’t know what subject- 
matter means as a term or that you don’t know what is the 
most useful way of thinking about it?” 

“‘T don’t know which, probably the latter.” 

‘“‘T don’t see your difficulty. Subject-matter is what you 
learn when you study.” 

‘‘T am not so sure whether it is what you learn or what 
you study.” 

‘‘Is there any difference?”’ 

‘“‘T think there is a great difference. Sometimes at any 
rate one studies over a whole area and learns just a little or at 
the most concludes but little. Subject-matter-of-study seems 
to me almost always wider than subject-matter-of-learning. 
What you study contains much chaff along with the wheat. 
Study seems to be an effort to find the wheat and to separate 
it from the chaff.” 

‘“What you say is true, but I don’t just like your figure. 
The wheat was there from the first and was wheat all the 
time. Study seems somehow to bring the learning into exist- 
ence.” 

‘Don’t you think this hairsplitting is awful? Why not 
go on to something practical? I lhked the suggestion of 

272 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 273 


seeking the most useful way of conceiving subject-matter. 
Why not consider that? Only [have no suggestion to make.” 

“Tsn’t subject-matter simply one essential factor in the 
educative process? There must be a learner, a child let us 
say, and something learned. Without both gpg ana 
these two, child and subject-matter, there is no subject- 
educative process.” paieha ti 

: actors in the 

“T sea you’ve read Dewey’s The Child and the educative 
Curriculum. What does he mean by saying P70°ess 
that many so conceive the two as to make them disparate? 
Only I believe he does not use the word ‘disparate.’”’ 

‘“‘T think he means that many conceive them as belonging 
to entirely different kinds of things, without any common 
ground between them.”’ Ponleewl st 

“Well what common ground can there be factors 
between a child and the definition of a verb or “sparate? 
the multiplication table? A child is a live, wriggling, emo- 
tional creature, a young and erring mortal. The multiplica- 
tion table was fixed before the foundation of the world. It 
is perfect and timeless. We can’t mention life in connection 
with it; it is neither dead nor alive. I should say that 
properly considered child and subject-matter are disparate, 
as disparate as an inch and an hour. And this young, weak, 
erring child needs exactly this perfect subject-matter to 
make good his deficiencies, and that I call learning.” 

“Tf the two are as disparate as you say, how can you get 
them together? And what is learning and how does it get 
in its perfect work? I think you go too far. If they are 
really disparate, they cannot interact.” 

‘(Whether disparate things can interact, I don’t know; 
but don’t you think the natural tendency of holding the two 
as separate and disparate is to reduce learning to mere 
memorizing, to holding unrelated — disparate — matter 
in the mind?” 


274 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘““Yes, I do think so. I believe observation will bear out 
what you say. For myself I wish to think of child and 
learning and subject-matter as all having a common de- 
nominator, as all belonging together in one single con- 
ception.” 

“Your common-denominator, get-together, one-single- 
conception idea sounds good, but I can’t think of any such. 
What have you to suggest?”’ 

‘“‘T like Dewey’s, the conception of experience. The 
subject-matter of the curriculum is race experience, the 
Renenenes picked winnings of the race, the best ways man- 
asaunifying kind has yet devised of meeting its problems.” 
meee “That’s all right for subject-matter, but 
where does the child come in? 1 thought we were to have a 
common denominator?” 

‘Tt is a common denominator. The child has experience, 
the race has experience. The child’s experience is, of course, 
childish; but it is merely the small, the beginning, the 
germ; the fuller form we see in the race experience.” 

‘“‘T get a glimmer of what you mean, but not all. Won’t 
you elaborate?”’ 

‘“‘Compare inch and hour with inch and mile. Inch and 
hour are, as was said, truly disparate. An inch is neither 
longer nor shorter than an hour nor yet equal to it. The two 
do not belong on the same scale. But with inch and mile it 
is different. An inch is shorter than a mile. If we think of 
a scale of length, an inch will belong on it, and so willa mile.” 

“What are you talking about? I thought we were dis- 
cussing experience as a common denominator for child and 
subject-matter.” 

“So weare. Just wait. I say that on the scale of life or 
experience the child, like the inch on the mile, reaches but 
a small way. His ways of behaving are only beginnings, his 
language, for example, is limited and full of errors. The race 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 275 


experience, the best ways of behaving that man has yet 
devised, like the mile, reaches in comparison much longer. 
But — and this is my point — they both belong on the same 
scale. The best and wisest among us are in speech but 
doing better and wiser the same kind of thing the child is 
doing in his childish talk. There is no disparateness between 
the two. The greater is but the development to a higher 
degree of the less. Child-experience and race-experience are 
but earlier and later stages of the same thing.” 

‘As useful as is the term experience for your purpose, I 
think you used a phrase even better.”’ 

“What was that?’ 

‘“Ways-of-behaving. To me this is even a more obvious 
common denominator to child and subject-matter than is 
the notion of experience. The child is, if he is Weel ne ni 
anything, a bundle of ‘ways-of-behaving.’ As having asa 
you yourself said, the race-experience has pre- Unifying 
served for us the best ways-of-behaving that rated 
have thus far been devised. Then child and subject-matter 
are both alike ways-of-behaving. The child’s ways are 
small, crude, erring, perhaps, when we compare them with 
the best ways-of-behaving of the best among us; but they 
clearly belong on the same scale, as you have just brought 
out.” 

“That sounds good, but let’s look more closely. The 
combination 7 x8 = 56 is subject-matter. How is it a way- 
of-behaving? Did you not too hastily include all subject- 
matter in your assertion?” 

“T think not. Consider a case where 7x8 = 56 actually 
belongs. I buy seven eight-cent stamps. I could pay for 
them separately, paying in at the stamp window >, Fayrot 
eight cents seven distinct times—I mean in behaving 
seven separate and distinct payments. That Aa Sha oe 
would be 7x8. But that is too much trouble. Thanks to 


276 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


our race experience (for many uncivilized tribes do not 
know so much arithmetic) instead of seven separate and 
distinct operations of paying eight cents each I make one 
paying operation of fifty-six cents. This race experience 
subject-matter way-of-behaving is much neater and more 
expeditious.” 

“T had never thought of that before. And do all the 
things that we teach our children show the same thing? 
How about geography?”’ 

‘It too, properly considered, consists of ways-of-behaving. 
I was in Detroit and learned to my regret that a certain train 
epanenyae | SOe which I was relying did not, on account 
as ways-of- of the change to daylight saving time, get me 
Beane into New York soon enough to meet an engage- 
ment. No other through train passing Detroit would do 
as well. Then came my geography. How about the Lake 
Shore road? Many trains between Chicago and New York 
pass that way, and the distance from Detroit down could 
not be great. There must surely be a road that would make 
the connection. Search disclosed such a connecting road 
with a satisfactory schedule of trains. A fast train to New 
York was caught and the engagement met. Here geograph- 
ical knowledge actually meant a way-of-behaving. It told 
me where to look.”’ 

‘Would you be willing to say that all subject-matter in 
the curriculum really works this way?” 

‘Tam quite willing to say that all ought to work this way; 
that anything which does not so work has no place in the 


i 3 
Wayeotbenncun riculum. Mes 
havingandthe ‘‘ This is one way then of criticizing a curricu- 
curriculum lum?” 


‘‘Indeed it is, and trenchant criticism it gives too. Much 
curriculum content I fear could not stand it.” 
“You would have to interpret behavior rather broadly, 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 277 


would you not, in order to include all desirable learnings 
under the head of ways-of-behaving?”’ 

‘No more broadly than behavior properly extends. To 
me behavior is as broad as life; it specifically includes all 
ways of reacting in life to life situations. So far as I can see 
that will include all we need.” 

‘‘A moment ago you used this conception as a criterion 
for criticizing the curriculum. Iam wondering if it is equally 
valuable as a criterion for judging learning.” 

“What have you in mind?”’ 

‘“‘T mean so as to decide whether a thing has been learned. 
We have said this in several different ways before. I should 
like now to say that nothing has been learned wy, jearn- 
until it has been made over into an actual way- ing has taken 
of-behaving. Much school learning seems to eee 
me to be merely for show purposes, chiefly for show on 
examination day. To me this is a degradation of the notion 
of learning, a prostitution of it. Nothing has been learned 
till it is there ready and disposed to serve as an actual way- 
of-behaving.”’ 

‘Wouldn’t that condemn many schools and teachers?” 

“T think it would, but it is no less valuable for all that. 
In fact I think our schools are often off the track. They 
seem not to know what they are about or why. If everybody 
saw that subject-matter is good only and because it fur- 
nishes a better way-of-behaving and that learning means 
acquiring actually that way-of-behaving — if every one saw 
these things, we should have, as we ought to have, a dif- 
ferent kind of schools.” 

‘Does this have any bearing on education as a prepara- 
tion for life?”’ 

“This conception helps us to understand one previously 
discussed, the continuous reconstruction of experience. 
To learn anything as a new way of behaving is of course 


278 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


to reconstruct experience. If we demand that the way- 
of-behaving be got only as it is immediately needed, we 
shall have the continuous remaking of experi- 


Education : Pen MCh te sige 
Le a ence; and this of course is life itself, hving now 
construction — the opposite of education as a mere prep- 


of experience : iP 
r aration for future living.” 


‘And you really mean that you wish everything the child 
learns to reappear soon as a new way of behaving? Every- 
thing — arithmetic, geography, history, spelling?” 

“That is exactly what I mean. I should wish each thing 
to be learned when and because it was needed as a way-of- 
behaving right then and there. If it comes into the child’s 
life because it is thus needed, I think it will sooner and 
more frequently and more vitally be called on to serve again 
in that child’s life.” 

‘To you mean there should be no variation from this, 
none whatever? Remember how many inferior teachers 
we have.” 

“T told you what I should wish. In this world we often 
are compelled to take less than we wish.”’ 

‘‘Somewhere I have heard the phrase ‘potential subject- 
matter.’ Does it not fit in here?”’ 

“T think it does. Take an illustration that we have used 
once before. A child sets out to learn to lace his shoes. 
Potential vs. While he is working at this, everything that he 
actual sub- studies in connection is, I should say, actual 
ject-matter = subject-matter-of-study. A year ago this activ- 
ity was far ahead of him and of his abilities. Even a month 
ago it was too much for him. To-day it is actual subject- 
matter. Now a year ago, and more so a month ago, 
his mother knew that if all went well the time would come 
when shoe lacing would thus become actual subject-matter- 
of-study. She saw it then as potential subject-matter to the 
child, possible in the future but as yet not actual.” 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 279 


“Then you have by contrast defined for us two terms, 
actual subject-matter, potential subject-matter.” 

Se Vie a? 

‘What do you call anything after it has been learned, 
well learned? To him who has learned a thing in the past it 
cannot now be called actual subject-matter, still less is it 
for him potential subject-matter. What name do you give 
iba: 

“Qo far as I know there is no good name to give it. I 
have sometimes by contrast called it ‘once-was’ subject- 
matter; but that sounds odd.” 

“Vou spoke of the boy’s lacing his shoes. I wish we might 
go over that again. I should like to see more clearly the vari- 
ous steps in the educative process and particularly how the 
notions of study, learn, and subject-matter enter. We have 
touched on various parts of this already. I should like to 
see it all brought together.” 

“Tam glad to do so, though it isnoteasy. Let us take the 
boy’s lacing his shoes. I like to think of this as typical of 
practical out-of-school learning. I should like practical 
to emphasize here the two terms ‘practical’ out-of-school 
and ‘out-of-school.’ ”’ Secaae 

“You mean then that not all learning takes this 
form?”’ 

“Yes, that’s what I mean. I think this is the most signifi- 
cant learning. I know there are other kinds, but I find it 
difficult to draw lines of demarcation. Certainly this shoe- 
lacing instance is typical of a very important class of learn- 
ing. I reckon five steps, which I propose to number and 
discuss: 

“1. The boy starts out to do something, here to lace his shoes. 
This he has never done before ‘all by himself.’ He has seen 
mother or sister or nurse do it, so he knows more or less about 
it, at least enough to make a beginning. 


tay 


FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


. He meets a difficulty. The activity is brought to a stop. 


Now, as we saw once before, this difficulty arises because he 
lacks a certain way-of-behaving (as the behaviorist psycholo- 
gist says, he lacks the appropriate behavior-pattern). He 
has many habits and skills, many ways-of-behavior, many 
behavior-patterns, but he lacks this particular way-of- 
behaving; namely, the behavior-pattern of lacing his own 
shoes. True enough he already has parts of the needed way- 
of-behaving; he knows eyelet holes, he can put lace point 
through eyelet hole, he can pull on the string, he can even 
tie a knot; but as one whole operation he cannot. He lacks 
it. And the difficulty is that he lacks it. Lack, difficulty. 
No lack, no difficulty. 


. He tries again and again, his mother helping him. He pays 


attention to all the promising elements in the situation. He 
notes the order and arrangement of lacing. He watches how 
his mother does it. He looks at her finished result. He tries 
again and studies as he goes. 

“This attention to promising elements in the situation in 
order to make good his lack is what I call study. Study is 
thus the studious effort to acquire a needed new way-of- 
behaving. 


. Eventually (we will suppose) he gets the ‘hang of the thing’ 


—he finds, gets, and applies the needed new way-of-behav- 
ing. He can and does lace his shoes. 

‘‘Learning appears here as getting the needed behavior- 
pattern, the lacking new way-of-behaving. As we said 
earlier, learning (this kind of learning) has not taken place 
until the new way-of-behaving is so built up in the learner 
that it becomes in fact to him a new way of behaving. 


The new behavior-pattern (way-of-behaving) now being 
available and applied, the difficulty is gone. The activity is 
resumed and carried to its conclusion. The shoes are laced.” 


“T see where siudy and learn come in. They are clear, 
but I don’t see the subject-matter. Where is it?” 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 281 


‘Curiously enough it appears more complicated than 
we had beforetimes carelessly thought. We may define 
subject-matter as what we study and what we 
learn from the study. If so, we find the first 
part of the definition in step 3, the things to 
which attention was paid, those promising elements; and 
the second part in step 4, what was learned.” 

‘““Most people, it seems to me, do not see these two parts 
in the conception of subject-matter.” 

‘Yes, and some who have got the new point of view doubt 
the wisdom of continuing to use the old term; but I am not 
yet convinced that we should give it up.” 3 

“You speak of the new point of view. Have you not in 
fact introduced us to new conceptions of study and learn 
as well as of subject-matter?”’ 

‘“‘Before we answer that I should like to recall that this 
boy who yesterday could not lace his shoes and to-morrow 
and thereafter does lace his shoes is a different ppe pecon- 
person. You remember when we were dis- struction of 
cussing the reconstruction of experience [see paPes lanes 
page 190] it was brought out that henceforth this boy is 
more independent, more a self-directing person. He not 
only can and does lace his shoes, but he now is called upon 
to consider hours and bells in a way and with a respon- 
sibility new to him. Having greater responsibility he has 
more chance to meet responsibility and of course also more 
chance to shirk. The moral world thus opens a little wider 
to him. He is in sober fact more of a person. Moreover 
he feels it. Right or wrong, good or bad, he feels his 
growing independence, his new responsibility; and through 
this his personality again grows more complex. And not 
only he but his mother feels it all. She rejoices that he has 
gone forward; but her mother heart has its corresponding 
pang, he is now less dependent on her, is now less her baby. 


How subject- 
matter enters 


282 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


He has taken a step forward on the road to manhood with 
its admittedly separate personality and self-control.” 

“And this you think of as the reconstruction of the 
child’s experience?”’ 

‘Yes, this is true education, true living.” 

‘‘T like your phrase ‘step forward.’ Would you say that 
each instance of learning is in so far a ‘step forward’?” 

“Yes, a step forward at least toward a more complex and 

generally distinct personality, not necessarily a step forward 
Subiect toward a goal ethically good. <A step forward 
matterpro- in the first sense might be a step backward in 
perlymeans the second sense.” 
a step for- : 
ward in the ‘‘And subject-matter as something learned is 
child’s life = thus both the occasion and cause of stepping 
forward in the reconstruction of experience.” 

“Yes, I like so to think of it. In this sense subject- 
matter has not been properly brought into the child’s life 
unless he does, because of it, step forward in the reconstruc- 
tion of his experience.” 

“You have said nothing about teaching in connection. 
Was there no teaching here?” 


rapes ‘Almost surely, yes. The mother will help 
teaching the child to learn. To my mind that is what 
enters 


teach means. But I always wish to use ‘learn’ 
in the full sense of actually acquiring new behavior-patterns, 
new actual ways-of-behaving.” 

“You repeat then your proportion: 


teaching : learning = selling : buying?” 


“Yes, I wish always to keep that in mind.” 

‘It seems to me that you have defined study, learn, teach, 
and subject-matter as if they belonged to life, not to school. 
{s this intentional or have you other definitions that apply 
to school?” 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 283 


“Life has been foremost not only here but everywhere 
else when we have sought the better education. To me 
education is of life, for life, and by and through 
life; and life is of and for education. So the 
saying is true that education is life.” 

“Vou spoke of new conceptions of study and learn and 
subject-matter. What differences do you see between the 
old and the new as regards these?”’ ser 

‘“‘Chiefly this, as it seems to me. The old conception of 
conception, seldom found within the past the educative 
seventy-five years one hundred per cent pure, Puan 
was this. Childhood is, in itself and apart from adult ac- 
tivities, a waste period. Education as a preparation for 
adult life is thus a good way of utilizing this otherwise wasted 
period. To do this we (a) study adult life and see what it 
needs. After laying aside the things that will be learned 
without our consideration we take the remainder and 
organize them into an order suitable for learning. This isa 
curriculum. (b) We divide this curriculum into suitable 
portions of ‘subject-matter’ (‘lessons’) and assign these 
(under a penalty) for learning. This with the testing named 
below constitutes ‘teaching.’ (c) The child undertakes to 
avoid the penalty by getting to the place where he can show 
that he has learned. The effort to get to this desired place 
or state is ‘study,’ and the typical way is to memorize a 
printed page. (d) When the child can avoid the penalty by 
answering our tests, chiefly ‘reciting’ what he has memor- 
ized, we count that he has learned. (e) If we carry the 
matter far enough we hope that the child will keep what he 
has thus ‘learned’ in the ‘storehouse of his memory’ till the 
day of need arises, and that he will then look within, choose 
what he needs, and apply it.” 

‘““The whole thing then has in the past been based on an 
extreme notion of preparation for future living.” 


Education 
and life 


284 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Yes, so it seems to me.”’ 

‘“‘Did our word ‘recitation’ come from re-cite?” 

“Exactly. It meant the time when the child repeated for 
us to hear what he had memorized from the book.” 

“‘And originally this was verbatim?” 

“Yes, indeed. A favorite method was the catechetical, 
question and answer method. History and geography and 
science, for example, used often so to be written.” 

‘Is this older conception entirely dead?” 

“It certainly is not. Most people seem still to think of 
education in this fashion.” 

“T have been contrasting the two ways in which subject- 
matter enters into life in these two conceptions. In the new 

conception, the subject-matter is brought in 
Two con- phe ay it 
trasted views because it is needed to carry on some activity 
ae ua inne already under way. In the old, the subject- 
| matter is simply set out to be learned, which 
as you say generally means mere memorizing.”’ 

“T don’t get your full meaning.” 

“Well, take an illustration. Imagine a boy at home 
making a wireless outfit. Some of the older boys have 
succeeded at this so well that they could ‘pick 
up’ almost all the stations. This boy would 
like to do as well. He starts out, meets a diffi- 
culty, studies the books and all the apparatus he can see, 
finds out where his difficulty lies, and remedies that. This 
done he starts again, after a while meets a new difficulty, 
again studies, again succeeds in overcoming the difficulty. 
And so on through the whole thing. In the end he too can 
hear distant stations.”’ 

‘IT see what you mean. It is the same analysis we had: 
before of out-of-school learning applied again and again.” 

‘Did he study?” 

“Most certainly.” 


Intrinsic 
learning 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 285 


‘fAnd learn?” 

“f Assuredly.”’ 

‘‘Was the subject-matter that this boy learned pertinent 
to his life as he himself saw and valued life?” 

“‘Tt certainly was. It was inherent in what he was doing, 
part and parcel of it, intrinsic in it.” 

“Let us then say that this was a case of ‘intrinsic learn- 
ing,’ and let us call what was learned ‘intrinsic subject- 
matter.’ ”’ 

‘‘And is there extrinsic learning with extrinsic subject- 
matter?” 

‘Let us see. Imagine a typical boy in the upper grades 
of school studying bank discount. Is bank discount neces- 
sary to carry on his life as he sees and values 
life or is it rather outside his life?” reap 

: earning 

‘“‘T should say outside.” 

“T am not so sure about that. It is part of his real life 
to avoid difficulty in school. I have seen boys study their 
teachers almost as hard as the boy we have mentioned 
worked at the wizeless. I should say that learning bank 
discount is not outside but inside his life.”’ 

‘To settle the matter if we can, let’s ask two questions. 
First, is the decision to study bank discount an internal or 
an external choice as we used those terms earlier?” 

“Tf heisa typical boy, I should say external. I can hardly 
think of a boy’s hoping in school that he would get a chance 
to learn bank discount.” 

‘Very good. Now the second question. Does the bank 
discount learned by this boy enter his life primarily as 
bank discount? Does he use it for actual discounting pur- 
poses, or does it enter primarily as something to give to 
the teacher on demand? Which?” 

‘Clearly not as bank discount but as something to be 
got because the teacher or the curriculum demands it.” 


286 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘Then I should say that for this boy to learn bank dis- 
count is a case of ‘extrinsic learning,’ and for him the bank 
discount was ‘extrinsic subject-matter.’ ”’ 

‘“Then most learning in most schools of to-day is extrin- 
sic?” 

‘“‘T didn’t say so, but certainly much of it is.” 

‘‘Are there degrees in this as in other matters?” 

‘“fAssuredly. I like to think of a scale extending from the 


| ee ogre teeta ti attests! 


most extrinsic of ‘extrinsic subject-matter’ at E to the most 
The extrin- trinsic of ‘intrinsic subject-matter’ at I. Few 
sic-intrinsic schools would fall at either extreme.” 

etn ‘“Would more be nearer to E or nearer to I?” 

“‘T surmise, nearer to EK.” 

‘‘What has history to show? Has there been any move- 
ment in the past hundred years?” 

‘‘Indeed, yes. ‘There has been for a century a general 
trend away from E in the direction of I.”’ 

‘And our most progressive schools?” 

‘“‘T should say they are moving decidedly towards I.” 

‘‘Do you believe a school could be run at I? Or is that 
just an ideal to be held in mind but not to be sought seri- 
ously ?”’ 

“‘T think Dr. Collings’s school was run approximately 
abhi Lanne 

‘“Was it a success? I have heard that these 
experimental schools do not succeed.” 

‘‘Read and see. On ordinary subject-matter 
tests it somewhat surpassed the national norms, while in 
attitudes and the like the results were truly remarkable. 
Suecess? Indeed, yes, a great success.” 


Collings’s 
experiment 


1 Collings—An Experiment with a Project Curriculum. 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 287 


‘“‘Can you say that this success was owing to the use of 
intrinsic subject-matter? May it not have been due to Dr. 
Collings’s enthusiasm?” 

‘How much was owing to intrinsic curriculum and how 
much to enthusiasm I cannot tell. But Ido know two things: 
It was run on the intrinsic basis and it was a great success. 
Dr. Collings thinks, and the facts seem to me to bear out the 
contention, that without the intrinsic curriculum no such 
measure of success would have been possible.” 

‘““Why should you expect intrinsic learning to be superior 
to extrinsic learning?” i 

‘We have implicitly answered this question already 
several times. Recall all that has been said woyy intrinsic 
about set and readiness, interest, complete learning is 
acts, purposeful activity, the complete act of Preferable 
thought. If you look closely you will, I think, see that all 
of these contemplate and even demand ‘intrinsic subject- 
matter’ and oppose mere ‘extrinsic subject-matter.’ ” 

“In a word ‘intrinsic subject-matter’ provides the conai- 
tions most favorable for learning?” 

‘Exactly so.” 

‘‘Do you refer here to primary learnings? Or also to asso- 
ciate and concomitant?’ 

‘“Alllearnings. Dr. Collings, in fact, set out to get mainly 
concomitant learnings. He got all.” 

‘‘Are there not definite evils that may reasonably be 
expected from the use of extrinsic subject-matter?” 

“T think there are; but what had you in gyi o 
mind?” extrinsic 

‘‘Well, for one thing, not all subject-matter ae 
can, under penalty, be assigned for learning. Any régime 
that relies on assignment-under-penalty will find itself 
leaving out of account some of the most valuable learn- 
ings.” 


288 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“What do you mean?” 

“Exactly this. There are some things we can easily assign 
for learning under penalty, such as the simpler skills and 
Some valu. the memorizing of printed matter. Both of 
able learning them mainly rely on simple repetition.’ These 
is slighted = we can assign precisely and test easily. 

‘Some other things cannot be assigned at all under 
penalty, for example, appreciations and attitudes. As we 
said the other day, imagine a teacher’s saying, ‘You 
boys are deficient in your appreciation of Nicholas Nickleby. 
You must stay in this afternoon and raise your appreciation 
to 70 or above.’ Or imagine the principal’s saying, ‘If you 
boys don’t like your teacher any better by next Monday 
I'll have her punish you till you do.’ No there are some 
things that will not be got in this fashion.” 

‘‘Between these two extremes of things that can easily be 
got by assignment and those that will not thus be got lie 
those of intermediate position, such as formal outward 
behavior, the solving of not-too-difficult problems. 

“‘T repeat then what I said at the outset, a régime that is 
content with assignment-and-testing-under-penalty will tend 
to restrict itself to the things that can be so assigned and 
tested, which means that there will be small consideration 
for the attitudes out of which are the issues of life. Even 
if individual teachers should wish to stress the weightier 
things, they will find themselves judged by the comparative 
showings of their children in these more mechanical matters 
of skills and facts, so that they too will in the end almost 
certainly yield to the pressure of authorities above them and 
rest content with this starvation diet curriculum.” 

‘“‘T hadn’t thought ef that in this light before, but I can 
see where you are right.” 

“Wouldn’t the children’s method of study be influenced 
for evil by the assignment-testing régime?”’ 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS = 289 


“Indeed, yes. Most obviously such a scheme means 
mechanical memorizing with lessened attention to thought 
connections. Where examinations are the prin- cpigren’s 
cipal means of testing we frequently find school method of 
work reducing itsel’ to cramming. Teachers Baal cat a 
will drill children on old examination questions. In New » 
York state where there is a state syllabus and a very elabo- 
rate state examination system (‘the Regents’ ’) we often find 
that teachers do not even possess a syllabus, but spend their 
days drilling on old examinations. Such seems to me to 
defeat largely the purpose of education. Surely in such is a 
minimum of the reconstruction of experience.”’ 

‘“‘T have been troubled about the effect on the teachers of 
the fixed curriculum with emphasis on assignment-testing. 
I lived once in such a system, and I never saw less thinking 
on the part of the teachers.”’ 

“Yes how can you expect teachers to think when they are 
tied hand and foot. To tell a teacher what she shall teach 
and when she shall teach it, and to count success , 
to be only and exactly that children shall suc- are not 
cessfully pass these mechanical subject-matter encouraged 
tests —all this I say is to treat a teacher as a isd rea 
factory operative. Under such a régime a teacher may be a 
skilled artisan, but an artist and thinker, no. She has no 
chance. In fact she is not expected to think. ‘Hers not to 
reason why, hers but to teach and dry —up.’ That's what I 
say, and I have seen it happen too often.” 

“Well, you make out a pretty bad case against treating 
teachers so. How many will agree with you in it?” 

‘We'll oftener find it true than we shall get agreement on 
iter 

“JT should like to ask about moral character training 
under such a régime. I say that morals suffer perhaps 
most.” 


290 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘There is certainly something in your indictment. We 
have already seen that certain finer character aspects of 


Moral life, the attitudes and appreciations, will suffer 
character in such a régime. We have seen the evil ten- 
is hurt 


dency toward cramming. In its extreme form 
this may be found as cheating. Perhaps most of all is it 
true that education, to be morally educative, requires that 
children live as a social group in the school with the teacher 
as the comrade and social arbiter. But if assignment and 
penalty be stressed, an opposition between teacher and 
pupils is all but mevitable. This means that the child 
spends from eight to twelve years of his life thinking of 
those in closest authority over him as his opponents. A 
good part of his efforts will be spent in ‘beating the 
game.’ If there can be a worse training for citizenship 
it would be hard to find it.” 

‘“‘Doesn’t a régime of ‘intrinsic subject-matter’ tend to 
make an ally of the teacher?” : 

“Yes, Just as ‘extrinsic subject-matter’ tends to make an 
enemy of him.’’ 

‘“You have all been pretty severe on the assignment- 
testing plan of teaching. If it is as bad as you say, why 
does it persist?” 

‘There are two answers to be made. One is that it doesn’t 
persist — not in its old strength. It is yielding all along the 
Where line and giving way increasingly to a closer and 
sicleaming closer approximation to intrinsic subject-mat- 
Pere ter. The other is that the general assignment- 
testing practice lends itself most easily to the authoritative 
management of teachers. The administrator, because he 
must succeed as an administrator, almost inevitably seeks 
a plan that can be mapped precisely in advance, where 
precise expectations can be laid down, and precise checks 
made on results, so that responsibility is exactly located. 


SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 291 


That this defeats the purpose of education is not usually 
perceived either by the administrator or by his board or by 
the parents. Tradition favors this old plan. They are more 
or less blinded.” 

“But is it not true that teachers are more alert than ad- 
ministrators to the evils of the extrinsic régime?”’ 

‘‘No one statement is true either of all teachers or of all 
administrators, but there is some evidence that we find more 
alertness among the teachers on this point. It comes closer 
home to them.” 

‘‘Before we go, I wish some one would give us a summary 
of what we have covered during this discussion: It seems 
to me to include a good deal.” 

‘“As I see it, we have considered three main items: (a) 
subject-matter as ways-of-behaving, (b) an analysis of 
practical out-of-school learning which yielded 
new conceptions of study, learn, and subject- 
matter, and (c) the distinction between ‘intrinsic’ and 
‘extrinsic’ subject-matter. 

‘“As soon as we saw that subject-matter is properly to be 
considered as ways of behaving, the best that the race has 
yet found out, it was at once easy to see that a child had not, 
for life purposes, learned anything until he had made it over 
into his own actual way of behaving. That this may be 
possible, many curriculums must be made over. This led 
once more to the notion of education as a continual recon- 
struction of experience. 

‘From the analysis of a practical instance of out-of-school 
learning, it became evident that study and learn are vital 
life activities inherently necessary whenever a difficulty is 
met and overcome. Subject-matter is thus intrinsic in those 
situations where the individual takes a step forward in the 
remaking of his own life experience. 

‘Such intrinsic learning differs radically from mere ex- 


ummary 


292 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


trinsic learning. Intrinsic learning is, as said above, a vital 
life activity necessary in order that an individual overcome 
a difficulty. Extrinsic learning is artificially introduced into 
the learner’s life by some external authority. It is learned 
thus under penalty, actual or implied, and is accordingly 
not used then or there to forward life but rather that it may 
be presented by the learner to show that he has accomplished 
the task imposed. It needed no argument to show that 
intrinsic learning utilizes better the various conditions 
favorable to learning already discussed. Of a régime of 
extrinsic subject-matter, we saw that it tends to restrict the 
range of desirable learning, to hurt the child’s methods of 
study, to lower his morals, and to reduce the teacher to 
somewhat less than a full person.” 

“Don’t you think one reason why so many still hold to 
extrinsic learning is that textbooks are built on that basis?”’ 

“Yes, and courses of study, and promotion standards, 
and school furniture, and — most of all— people’s con- 
ceptions.” 

‘‘To we have to change all these?” 

fi eg? 

‘‘Where shall we begin?” 

‘‘With whatever is nearest to hand.” 

‘Must all be changed together?” 

“Probably so.” 

“Will it be a difficult task?” 


tivo 9 
“Ts it worth the trouble?”’ 
‘“‘Indeed, yes.” 
REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 
Kivparrick — ‘Subject-Matter and the Educative Process,” 


Journal of Educational Method, 2:94-101, 230-237, 367-376 — 
(Nov. 1922, Feb. and May 1923). 





SUBJECT-MATTER AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS 293 


Ki.patrick — “How Shall We Select the Subject-Matter of the 
Elementary School Curriculum,” Journal of Educational 
Method, 4:3-10 (Sept. 1924). 

Kinpatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 
467, 468, 473, 475, 477. 

Drewry — The Child and the Curriculum. 

CoLtuincs — An Experiment with a Project Curriculum, pp. xvii-xx, 
48, 317-335. 

Merriam — Child Life and the Curriculum, Ch. 8-12. 

Bonsrer — The Elementary School Curriculum, Ch. 1-8. 

Drwery — Democracy and Education, pp. 193-200, 212-227, 


CHAPTER XVIII 
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 


‘What do these terms ‘psychological’ and ‘logical’ mean? 
{ know what each means when it stands alone, but when 
Meaning of | they appear thus contrasted, they seem to have 
psychological specialized meanings. Am I right?” 

Mia ree ‘Yes, I think you are right. As contrasted 
terms they were introduced, I believe, by Professor Dewey.’”! 

“T know it; I found them in reading him. But I wish we 
might talk it over. I believe it would help me, at any rate.” 

“The clearest idea I can get is to think of the ‘psycho- 
logical’ as the order of actual experiencing and the ‘logical’ 
as the way we arrange what we learn from the experience.” 

“IT don’t quite understand. Won’t you please explain?” 

“Suppose we illustrate. Take government, for example. 
When did you first begin to learn anything about govern- 
ment?” 

“Do you mean at the very first, when I was a child?” 

CONT exci??? 

‘“T can hardly say. The earliest occasion that I recall is 
when I wanted to go on a picnic with my older sister. My 
How ideas Mother wouldn’t let me, and I cried. I think 
are gradually she punished me. At any rate I learned that 
poi there were some things I couldn’t do without 
my mother’s permission.” 

‘Suppose we take that as a beginning, though it cer- 
tainly was not your very first occasion. You had in this 

*See The Child and the Curriculum, pp. 25-28; How We Think, pp. 61-63; 


Democracy and Education, pp. 256-261. 
294 


PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 295 


an experience of being governed and you learned something 
from it.” 

‘Yes, and the next time I knew better what to expect.” 

“You mean that what you learned grew out of one ex- 
perience and prepared for a succeeding experience along the 
same line?’’ 

“Yes, that’s true, though I hadn’t said it to myself in 
just that way before now.”’ 

“And is this always true, that each experience leaves some 
result of learning and that this resulting learning in turn 
prepares, in part at least, for the next expe- ., ow ecuit” 
rience?”’ and “‘experi- 

“You have in mind a succession of experi- ence” succeed 

: ; each other 
ences along any one line, like government?” 

‘““Yes, and I mean to ask whether in such a case there 
always is a succession of experience and result — 

BO Boe ae uet bel cer uae Cm 

‘“‘T believe you are right. If I understand you, H,, E., Es, 
etc., mean successive experiences of government, and Ry, R,, 
R, refer to the successive results learned respectively from 
these experiences.” 

“Ves, and each R grows out of the E preceding and pre- 
pares you in some measure for the EK succeeding.” 

“T am getting lost. You are going too fast for me. I see 
the different experiences all right. Every time mother or 
father or the teacher made me do something, or set up a 
rule, or punished me for breaking a rule, that was an ex- 
perience of government. They are the successive E’s. 
That’s clear. But what are the R’s?”’ 

“Well, let’s see. By the time you began school, had you 
learned at home what you as a six-year-old might and 
might not do?” 

“Yes I was pretty well adjusted, though I would some- 
times break over.” 


296 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Had you learned all this at once, as the result of just 
one experience?”’ 

‘No, it took a great many experiences to teach me. I 
remember that for quite a while I kept running away, till 
finally I learned that I had to have permission before I went 
out of the front gate.” 

‘Did, then, your first experience of running away teach 
you nothing about government?”’ 

“Oh, yes. I learned_that I couldn’t run away without 
being called to account. Eventually I learned to ask 
permission.” 

“And after that another round of experiences, perhaps in 
connection with your brothers and sisters, taught you some- 
thing about others’ rights and the need to respect them.” 

‘chy eaiee, 

‘So each experience (E) does leave some deposit of learn- 
ing (R), and each such R does make you look out differently 
—in some degree — upon the future?” 

“Yes, that’s clear. I see that each R not only grows out 
of a preceding E but also helps us face some succeeding E.”’ 


“T should like to ask here about the successive R’s. Does — 


R; sum up R, and Re, or what is the case?” 

‘“‘Let’s answer that by another illustration. Suppose a 
child, say three years old, is first introduced to dogs by 
Building a playing with a playful little white puppy. As 
concept he plays (E), he builds up in himself a notion 
adheat (R) of what a dog is and what to expect. When 
his mother says that grandmother has a dog, he expects the 
same kind of small, white, playful dog. But suppose grand- 
mother’s dog turns out to be black, though small and play- 
ful. What will he now think when he hears that Uncle 
John has a dog?” 

‘He will think that Uncle John’s dog is small and playful, 
but he will be in doubt as to the color.’ 





PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 297 


“Does his notion (R.) after playing with grandmother’s 
dog reject R,, his former notion of dog?” 

“No. In part Re confirms Ri. He thinks even more 
firmly that a dog is small and playful; but in part it 
changes R;. He now thinks a dog may be white or it 
may be black.” 

‘And will the like process continue when he meets large 
dogs, yellow dogs, fierce dogs, and so on?” 

“Ves it must so continue. Isee now that each succeed- 
ing R in some measure utilizes all the preceding, but it 
may correct their deficiencies.” 

“Tsn’t it in these different and contrasting experiences 
that the child comes to notice the different things about 
a dog?”’ 

“Yes, Suppose Fido hurts his foot and goes limping 
about? What effect has this on the boy?” Differen- 

“He will become more conscious of Fido’s tiation of 
feet than before and he will also see how all PS 
four feet must work together if Fido is to run well.” 

“Let me say it a little more explicitly. As the child has 
from time to time need to think, now of foot, now of tail, 
now of forelegs, now of eyes, he comes to 
separate these out of the total notion of dog 
and for the purposes of thought gives them, as 
it were, a kind of separate existence. This we may call 
differentiation of parts. Moreover, while the child is 
differentiating out any one part, as the foot because of 
the lameness, he is at the same time seeing how this part 
is connected with the rest: ‘Fido needs all four a 

4 . eren- 
feet to run well.’ This we may call ‘integra- tiation and 
tion’ or ‘coordination.’ Now I assert that dif- integration 
ferentiation and integration go hand in hand.” avenue] 

“Yes, that’s clear. Now does not this have some effect 
on the successive R’s?”’ 


Integration 
of parts 


298 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘To be sure. They become thus ever more complex. 
They have more and more recognizable parts and the parts 
are seen to be joined together in ever new ways.”’ 

‘From what you are saying, the separate parts seem to 
become known after the child has a notion of a dog and not 
before?”’ 

fOY eg-?? 

‘But is not this contrary to what we have been taught 
about going from the simple to the complex?” 

The leimpte ‘Do you mean that a child should build his 
and the idea of a dog as he builds a block house, one 
ae yes block or one element at a time?”’ 

‘Well, why not?” 

‘“‘Let’s try it and see how it would work. Shall we begin 
with the feet to build our idea of a dog. Does the child first 
learn the feet of thedog, and then the legs, joining the 
latter to the former on top? And doeshe then learn the 
body, and join this to the already waiting legs and feet? 
And does he next add the ideas of tail and head? Does he 
take each such successive step with no notion of the whole 
dog till he has thus built it up?” 

“That’s absurd! You are making fun of me.”’ 

‘Not of you, but of that way of building up an idea. It 
¢s absurd, isn’t it?” 

“Tt certainly is; but now I am lost, I fear, entirely. How 
does the child build an idea?” 

‘“‘Go back to the differentiation we discussed. The child 
saw the lame foot and so saw foot and feet more clearly than 
ever before. This differentiation was bringing into clearer 
relief what was less clearly present before.” 

“Yes, I see that much.” 

‘‘But the notion of the dog was all the while a notion of a 
whole dog even from the first.” 

“Certainly.” 





PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 299 


“But it was not so with building the house. The first 
block didn’t make a whole house or anything like it.” 

“T think I see now. The boy’s first experience was of 
a whole dog and he got a notion of a whole dog. This 
notion was at first simple enough — and inadequate — but 
‘t became more and more complex and more and more 
adequate as more and more parts or characteristics were 
differentiated and integrated. However, the notion under 
consideration was all the time and at each time that of a 
whole dog.” 

‘“‘Aixactly so.” 

‘Well, what has all this to do with ‘psychological and 
logical’? Have you forgotten that? What is the good of all 
this anyhow? What is going to come from it?” 

‘We do seem to have gone pretty far afield. Suppose we 
try to collect it all together. Imagine as regards govern- 
ment a very long series of experience and learning-result 
closely worked out, stretching from earliest babyhood up 
to the knowledge of the most learned scholar in the realms 
of thought. We may picture it in this fashion: 


Ei Re Ee Ro E3 Rz Did Eo Rio By Ri vp aie ayy Reo Bsi Rs, see EL, 


In this the E’s mean successive experiences of govern- 
ment, and each succeeding R is the learning result that 
followed that experience. In every case R grows out of a 
preceding E and prepares, in some measure, for a succeeding 
E. Let’s look at this series and ask some questions about it. 
We'll suppose we have before us the growth of the concep- 
tion of government in a well taught person who comes at 
length to be a great authority in the subject. I ask first: 
Is each R made from its preceding E by conscious intent or 
not?” 

“T should say not with conscious intent. Surely as a 
child he didn’t intend to learn. He didn’t think about 


300 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


that. He learned, to be sure, but he didn’t consciously 

mean to learn.’ 

os “Probably as a child he did net consciously © 

pdacttitpad i intend his learning —- though often his parents 
meant he should learn — but how about his 

later years?” 

“Tf he is to become a conscious student of the subject, 
there certainly will come a time when he intentionally studies 
his experiences in order to draw from them their lessons. 
Iiven if he were not to be a scholar, he might still as a man 
of affairs take conscious note of what was going on so as to 
profit by it. So the later R’s are made with more or less 
conscious intent.” 

“Can his parents or a teacher help this process?” 

“Certainly. They can help the boy draw proper con- 

clusions. I suppose in line with our previous 
Fao discussions they will wish him to be purposeful 

in his experiences in order that he may better 
learn. They will also in all probability ‘set the stage’ or 
‘load the dice’ or otherwise contrive that he have fruitful 
experiences.”’ 

‘What do you mean by fruitful experiences? Are some 
more fruitful than others?” 

‘Certainly. In fact if parent or teacher or somebody 
didn’t help the child, he would never catch up with what the 
race during untold centuries has been learning. This means, 
of course, wise oversight of the boy’s experiences.” 

‘Suppose the E’s are the right kind, that is, purposeful 
on the boy’s part and fruitful of result, what about the suc- 
cessive R’s? How will they differ from each other?” 

‘As we have already seen, each R in turn is itself more or 
less of a whole, summing and supplementing and correcting 
the preceding. They grow continually more and more 
differentiated within and at the same time more and more 





PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 301 


fully codrdinated. They are also, I suppose, more con- 
sciously organized — we might say more and more logical. 
Not only will each be more carefully drawn as 
; : : How the 

a conclusion from the preceding experiences, successive 
but I think each formation of the conception “results” 

; ; differ 
will be more and more consciously made, or- 
ganized on more and more rational grounds. ‘This is what 
I mean by saying it would grow more and more logical.”’ 

“Tet’s go back a minute. How different is any E from 
its R?” 

“Tf T understand you, they are different kinds of things. 
Any E isa bit of life itself, actual experiencing, while the R 
is a result in the mind, an ordering and arranging of what 
is learned from the experiencing. E is life, R is what is 
learned from life so arranged as to control better the next 
experience (a new E) along this line.” 

‘Even a child profits from his experiences, then?”’ 

“Certainly. You might say, if you wish, that each time 
of life has its own learning, its own arrange- 
ment of learned results, its own logic. These 
successive R’s differ as regards organization in degree, but 
little if any in kind or function.” 

“You apply the term logical to each learning result. Do 
you do this deliberately?” 

“Yes I think the essence of logical arrangement is effec- 
tual organization of experience. I find this in substance — 
perhaps I had better say ‘in germ’ — in the learning of even 
the youngest child. The very essence of learning is for con- 
trol of subsequent experience. So I am willing to say that 
each R from the first is, for its stage, logical.” 

“Am I to infer that by analogy you apply the term 
‘psychological’ similarly to each experience?” 

“Yes, just as the result (R) is organized logi- 
cally, so is the learning experience by its very nature 


Logicals 


Psychologicals 


302 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


arranged psychologically, that is, for learning. Perhaps 
the definition here lies as much in the contrast as in the 
terms themselves.” ’ 

“‘T am not quite clear as to your use of the word logical. 
Do I correctly understand you that when the words logic 
and logical are used in their ordinary sense, they refer to the 
higher reaches of systematic organization, the kind we expect 
of well-disciplined minds? But when logical is used in 
contrasted connection with psychological, both terms vary 
with the development of the person: to each psychological 
age and experience its own logical arrangement?”’ 

“Yes, that’s the way I understand it.” 

‘““Won’t you state, then, succinctly the difference between 
the psychological and logical order? I think I know, but I 
am not sure.” 

‘The psychological order is the order of experience, of 
discovery, and consequently of learning. The logical order 
Psychological 18 the order of arranging for subsequent use 
order defined what has already been learned.” 

‘“‘T have heard people discuss whether we should arrange 
a@ course in science, say, psychologically or logically. I 
think I see dimly what they mean, but I should like to see it 
more clearly. Can you help me?” 

‘“‘IT think so. Go back to our long series written down 
above, stretching from E, R, up to E, Ry. Let’s ask first, 

what is the difference between a scientist and a 
Rirucetises teacher of science — between what a scientist 

and what a teacher of science should try to do? 
Where on this scale would the scientist, as such, live?” 

‘“‘T suppose toward the end.” 

‘“‘Suppose we say he now has reached R, and no one has 
gone further. Then he will try to push ahead and learn still 
more. He will use his R, as a basis from which to project 
an experiment or a series of observations (E,,,). From 


PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 303 


this new psychological (En+,) by careful reasoning he will 
hope to draw some new conclusions. If successful, he will 
arrange his results in a form to stand criticism and present 
them as Rn, to the world. This is what the scientist, as 
such, would do.” 

“Ves, I see that.” 

“Now, by contrast, imagine a teacher of science who has 
gone through the whole series up to and in- The task of 
cluding R,; how will he try to bring his son, the teacher 
say, up to R,?” of science 

“How old is the son and how much does he already 
know?” 7 

‘Why ask these questions?” 

“Because the teacher must begin where the child is.” 

“Do you mean that each learner is at a certain stage on 
this series and must begin there if he is to advan ce?” 

“Ves surely. How else could it be done?”’ 

“T agree with you, but is it always so done? What about 
our textbooks — in physics, for example?” 

‘“What do you mean?” 

“Ts it not true that most of the older textbooks at any 
rate took the latest results of science (Rn) and tried to state 
them simply, then divided this material into thirty chapters 
and assigned these in turn as lessons?” 

“T hadn’t thought of it that way, but I believe you are 
right.” 

“Why do you say ‘older’? I think modern textbooks do 
the same.” 

“Possibly so; but already, especially in general science, 
we see a, change coming.” 

‘Well, why shouldn’t they make textbooks in the way 
you describe?” 

“Let us see. Suppose the child had reached a develop- 
ment indicated by Rio. Is Chapter I (the first thirtieth of 


304 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


R,) the same as Ru, and Chapter II the same as Riz, and 
so on?” 

“Why, no; that would be like building that block house, 
wouldn’t it, a block at a time, and like getting the notion of 
the dog by beginning with the feet and then adding the legs?”’ 

“T think it would be much like it. And what notion would 
the child have of physics after a few lessons like this? Do 
you from this see the difference between the logical and psy- 
chological order?”’ 

‘““T begin now to see. The logical order is taking a mental 
organization fit for grown-ups, chopping it into pieces, and 
Phe locicd! giving it a piece at a time to the child to learn. 
order of I suppose the idea is that when he gets all the 
ane separate pieces he will then have a whole. But 
isn’tit absurd? It is in fact like building up the notion of the 
dog by getting first the separate notions of feet, legs, body, 
tail, and head, and then putting these together. I am glad 
you gave me that illustration.” 

“‘Isn’t geometry frequently so taught?” 

“Yes, always so, unless there is special preparation for 
the ordinary geometry textbook. And that’s one reason why 
it often proves so difficult. Of course Euclid’s book was for 
much more advanced students.” 

‘Isn’t it true that when R, is thus cut up into pieces and 
assigned as so many lessons, memorizing the formulation is 
about all the child can do?” 

“This is often so. The child’s E’s, then, are not real 
experiences, only efforts to memorize statements of the 
results of somebody else’s experience. Under such condi- 
tions, thinking, real thinking, the thinking of discovery 
and exploration, is pretty well prevented.”’ 

‘‘And if the child doesn’t experience, if he has no iene E’s, 
he will have no true R’s, no really self-organized learning 
results. Am I right?” 





PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 305 


‘“‘T think so. I see no escape from that conclusion.” 

‘But are you not going too fast? Do you mean that the 
child must himself rediscover all that the race has found out? 
That’s impossible!’ 

‘“‘T don’t mean to leave the child without help. His process 
will be immensely shortened by having as a guide some one 
who knows the field. He is thus saved the 
costly blind-alley wanderings. But he must rae Wa 
himself face the essential problems if he is to 
organize in himself the solutions. On no other basis can he 
come to have an effectual grasp of the solutions as instru- 
ments of further thinking along this line. We can give him, 
as information, the fact that bichloride of mercury is a 
poison. He can use this information and save himself 
from being poisoned; but neither chemistry nor medicine 
can be taught merely by giving such information. Where 
knowledge and wisdom and power are sought, there must be 
much actual facing of difficulties. Experience in a field is 
necessary for anything like mastery of the field.”’ 

‘‘T am not clear on one point. A while back we spoke of 
the child’s having from the first a notion of a whole dog. 
That seemed clear then. But I fail to see the similarity be- 
tween that and his work with the science. Do you mean to 
assert that he has from the first a notion of the whole 
science and that this undergoes differentiation and integra- 
tion as we saw in the case of the dog?” 

‘Yes and no. Wedo not say that the notion of physics 
as a science was born the day the child first realized that a 
stone unsupported will fall, any more than we 
think the notion of biology was similarly born 
the first day he saw the dog. But any vital and 
natural experience has a unity that makes it a whole, 
whether it be of a falling stone or of a lever or of a syphon. 
And the child forms a notion of the experience which for 


Experience 
is of wholes 


306 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


him at the time is a whole, however much his more sophisti- 
cated elders may feel it as of necessity only a part of a larger 
whole. Later, if the child is fortunate he will have further 
fruitful experiences in this realm. Each such will be a whole, 
but oftentimes will join itself with previous experiences; 
and the new notion will supplement and correct the old ones. 
Differentiation and integration will in this manner arise, 
and at length what you and I call the science of physics will 
be born. If the boy be so inclined and is still fortunate, this 
hkewise will undergo differentiation and integration and 
logical articulation with successive experiences until, may- 
hap, the existing limits of the science are reached. Through- 
out, if the process be normal, each experience (E) is a whole 
and each successive R is for our pupil, student, and scholar 
at that stage likewise a whole, however partial and lopsided 
that particular R may later appear to him to be.” 

‘But the thirtieth part of R, isn’t felt as a whole, is it?” 

‘‘No. It is true that the learned man will give a kind of 
unity to each logical section of R,, but even he mainly sees 
this section as part of the larger whole R,.”’ 

‘“‘But it is the boy, the learner, that I am asking about.” 

‘‘No, indeed; to the beginner the thirtieth part of R, is 
neither a whole nor a part.” 

“‘T see that it is not a whole, but why not a part?” 

‘We only see a thing as a part when we see how it fits 
into the whole. To the novice a part all by itself is merely 
Wen pares waniee ill-conceived whole. He doesn’t know what 
canbeseen to make of it.” 
cede ‘“‘What does it mean to learn such things as 
the thirtieth parts of R,?” 

‘For the man who already knows R, or the most of it, 
such learning would be a new relating, a seeing of new 
material in relation to the whole. To him this might well 
be true learning.”’ 





PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 307 


‘But I meant to ask about the novice, the beginner. How 
ean he learn these thirtieth parts of R,?” 

“The word learn seems too strong and fine a word to 
give what he does with such. He cannot see it as a 
whole for it isn’t a whole. Nor can he relate gone 
it to the whole since he lacks the whole with descriptive 
which to relate it. Too frequently his so-called '°4™8 
learning is mostly a memorizing of the words of the book.” 

‘“Can’t he memorize the ideas?”’ 

“That’s hard to say. Strictly speaking no. He cannot 
get the idea except by some such process as that here 
Hecgmieds iemenn  cawhyyy Hohe ie we Hga riven) emer ele 
may from related past experiences get glimmering ideas, 
but closely scanned these are likely to turn out to be 
words.” 

“They may fool him, may they not, into thinking he knows 
something?”’ 

“Yes, and they may fool his elders who ought to know 
better.” 

“To you mean that this is absolutely wasted? That he 
then learns nothing? If you hold this, how do you explain 
the fact that most scholars — learned men, I mean — have 
been brought up on this régime?”’ 

“There are several things to be said. One is that these 
scholars are the picked intellects that managed to survive. 
When you ask about them you are ignoring all 
the casualties left along the line of march. An- 
other thing is that they, being capable, had the 
power of making a little first-hand experience go a long way. 
Still a third factor in the explanation, chiefly useful in con- 
nection with the second, is that they were good memorizers. 
Their previous experiences gave them some insight into some 
parts, as all were successively memorized (verbally). The 
successive parts were thus in mind until all had been in- 


How people 
have learned 


308 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


cluded. Then followed a thinking back and forth, with 
actual experiences scattered along. In this way they man- 
aged in the end, being capable, to build apparently in the 
wrong order the R, that they were mistakenly thought to 
have learned as one whole.” 

“Do you think this is the way that most people have 
learned all the various ‘logically ’organized treatises and the 
like?” 

‘Exactly so, so far as these have been learned. But I 
think most who studied them never in fact learned.” 

“You seem to imply a peculiar definition to your verb 
to learn.’ | 

‘Exactly the definition we have been using all the time. 
Nothing is for practical purposes learned till it has been 


What it made over into one’s actual ways-of-behaving. 
means to Our boys must behave after the manner of 
ok physics in order to be able to say that they have 


learned physics.” 

‘“That’s a high ideal. If it were enforced, what would 
become of physics as a subject?” 

‘“‘Tt’s a high ideal, but it is the only truthful criterion. 
Any other pretended learning is a fraud and a sham.” 

““But what would become of physics?”’ 

‘‘Some would learn it much sooner and better than now. 
Others giving up the sham of pretended learning would 
accept a humbler and much more _ useful 
learning.” 

‘‘And what, for instance, might that be?” 

‘‘Tam not prepared to say, but something like a knowledge 
of what part science has played in civilization, a greater faith 
in science as a method and result, so as actually to give up 
superstitions.” 

““Do you mean that people really believe superstitions?” 

‘“‘T do indeed. How many people wince at thirteen at the 


The content 
of physics 


PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LOGICAL 309 


table or shun room 13 or avoid Friday for the beginning 
of a trip or ‘knock on wood’?”’ 

‘A good many, I suppose, all told.” 

“Ves and how many take patent medicines and follow 
medical quacks?” 

“The number is certainly disgracefully large.” 

‘‘Are the learnings you have named all that you would 
expect from science in the high school?” 

“No, I should wish some knowledge of scientific method, 
especially of a controlled experiment, and perhaps even 
more some disposition to experiment in affairs that concern 
them.” 

“Ts that all?” 

“No. I especially disclaimed knowing just what should 
be expected. But I will say this: if they could get what I 
have laid out, it would for many, if not for most, be an im- 
provement over what now obtains.” 

“You are pretty hard on the logical order when used for 
learning. I judge you don’t approve of grammar as most of 
us learned it.” The logical 

“T certainly do not. It exactly illustrates order io be 
what I mean to condemn.” edna 

‘““Wouldn’t you on the whole mistrust definitions?” 

“Ves, If I hear that a teacher requires his pupils to 
memorize many definitions, I have my doubts at once as 
to that teacher’s insight.” 

“One further question. What does ‘psychologizing sub- 
ject-matter’ mean?”’ 

‘“‘Tt refers to the work of the teacher in pre- Paychoipeies 
paring for the learning of his pupils. In terms ing subject- 
of our discussion it means to take a science as ™** 
the scientist knows it (as R,) and ‘unscramble’ it into such 
a series of E, R, E, Re E3; R3 . . . as will lead the learner 
from where he now is through successive experiences (It) 


310 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


and learnings (R) until he comes to a firm grasp of the science 
itself. It means to make a path of psychological order from 
the learner’s present state up to a state where he has much 
experience well organized.” 

‘‘One last question. You have spoken as if this applies 
only to science. Does it apply also to our ordinary school 
subjects?” 

‘““Indeed, it does. I may, by elaboration, say 
that high school science should certainly begin as general 
science and be preceded by many experiences preparatory 
to it — not ‘deferred values,’ mind you, but experiences in 
which children live here and now. Geography should be so 
taught. In our best schools English grammar has already 
been so made over that little of the nth degree logical is now 
left. The older grammars were atrocious examples of teach- 
ing by the strict logical order. Civics is now being remade 
thus into citizenship. History teaching is probably sched- 
uled for a similar transformation. Many causes are at work 
to make over the school subjects more and more into the 
psychological order. Indeed the best way in which I can 
now conceive the curriculum itself is as a series of experi- 
ences in which by guided induction the child makes his 
own formulations. Then they are his to use.” 

‘‘We have much to think over, but I believe it is worth it.” 


Conclusion 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Dewey — The Child and the Curriculum, p. 25ff. 
Dewey — How We Think, Ch. 5. 
Dewey — Democracy and Education, pp. 256-266, 269f. 


Kinpatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. — 


481, 482, 483. (These three duplicate in part the three pre- 
ceding references.) 


| 


a a 


CHAPTER XIX 
Morau EDUCATION 


“T wish we might discuss moral education. I feel the need 
of clearer ideas on the subject if my teaching practice is to 
be what I wish it.” 

‘Indeed, I have been much surprised that no mention at 
all has been made so far of this most important part of all 
education. I have been watching to see how long we should 
go before some one would think of it.” 

“How can you say we have ignored it? I think there 
has hardly been a discussion that did not consider it.’’ 

“‘T don’t know what you mean. When have 
we discussed it?” ensaiinencn.” 

tion has per- 

“From the very first. I could hardly enu- vaded all 
merate all the times. The first discussion on Fert. 
the meaning of method turned largely on taking 
care of the character effect of the attendant learnings. You 
recall all that was said of concomitant learning. It was 
pointed out that through these character was largely built.” 

“So with the discussion on coercion and the building of 
interests. I remember definitely that we spoke of education 
in morals being largely a matter of building the right 
interests.” 

“Ves and I recall that in the discussion on the divided 
self it was specially pointed out that what makes for division 
of self makes for weakness of character, for inefficiency of 
moral outlook and response; similarly with the distinction 
between intrinsic and extrinsic incentives and their character 


effects.’ 
311 


312 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“And you recall what was said on punishment. I think 
it is quite right to say that the moral character aspect has 
been well nigh if not quite the foremost in mind throughout 
all our discussions. It has certainly permeated everything.”’ 

‘Now that you mention it I do recall these things, but I 
wish to have the very terms used, and no dodging. I think 
too that we use a different psychology when we come to 
character building.”’ 

“Tam afraid you will have to go elsewhere if you demand 
to find a different and peculiar psychology for use in dis- 
cussing moral education. Character building proceeds along 
the same lines and uses the same laws of learning whatever 
aspect you have in mind.” 

“T have been troubled as to what constitutes the aim in 
moral education. I have thought all the while it was 


rea uant character, but recently I heard some one say 
in moral it was conduct. When I think about it I get 
Maoh confused. At which should we aim?” 


‘If I have to say either, I should say both.” 

“That’s paradoxical enough. What do you mean?” 

‘Ask yourself which comes first, which is cause and which 
is effect.” 

‘Why, character grows out of conduct. How else does one 
become what he is?” | 

‘‘T say just the opposite, that conduct flows from char- 
acter. On what other basis could you expect from any one 
his ‘characteristic conduct’ as we say?” 

‘And again I say both, for both are right.” 

‘It’s too complicated for me. How can each grow out of 
the other?” 

“Easy enough. Does the hen come from an egg or the 
egg fromahen? Both. But with a hen and an egg actually 
before me I do not say that for these two each came from the 
other. I might say it like this: From a hen (h) comes an egg 


a 


MORAL EDUCATION 313 


(e); from this egg (e) another hen (h’); from h’ another 
egg (e’); from (e’) another hen (h’’), etc. Thus 
nevi en Line nen 

We bring with us into the world the beginnings of a charac- 
ter (C). As soon as this character (or nature) interacts with 
the outside world conduct (c) ensues. But this pp. charac- 
conduct (c) changes somewhat the original ter conduct 
character (C) and so gives us a somewhat st i 
different character (C’). When this character (C’) inter- 
acts with the outside world conduct ensues. But because 
the character (C’) was different this new conduct (c’) is 
somewhat different. We get then a series like the preceding, 

COGUA ECR Ch Ge yah 
in which each instance of conduct flows from a preceding 
character and leads to a somewhat new character. Similarly 
each stage of character came (in part) from preceding con- 
duct and gives rise to a somewhat different conduct.” 

“How long will this continue?” 

“Throughout life.” 

‘At which then should we aim?”’ 

‘“‘Again I say at both, but, as between the two, more im- 
mediately at conduct. Conduct is character interacting 
with situation or environment. Character 18 conguct the 
beyond our immediate influence, but by chang- immediate 
ing the situation we may influence conduct and *™ 
thus indirectly influence character and through it subsequent 
conduct. We shall seek then such conduct as will build the 
kind of character we approve, hoping from the new charac- 
ter to get the more certainly the kind of conduct that we 
approve.” 

‘Do I understand you to mean that our influence on both 
conduct and character is indirect, that our direct influence is 
limited to the situation or environment?” 


314 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Yes, precisely that.” 

‘And that means that, no matter how ethical or spiritual 
our aims may be, you and I must always begin and direct 
Things only OUr influences over others by using physical 
can we di- things, that is by moving them, of course.’’ 
aan essa “That is true. Talking, for instance, is mov- 
ing the air in certain ways. Writing is putting ink 
to paper. A smile is a facial movement.” 

“I don’t just like this idea. It doesn’t sound moral. In 
fact it sounds almost anti-moral.”’ 

“Tf it stayed in the physical movement stage it would 
not be moral. Fortunately it may get beyond that.” 

“‘T don’t understand.” 

“T mean that this gets into character. It is with charac- 
ter that we are concerned. Morals is exactly the tendency 
of character to respond properly to a given situation.” 

“Then we aim at character?” 

“Yes, but not immediately. Our immediate aim is con- 
duct, conduct of a kind that will build the desired character.” 

‘“We seem then to have three aims: immediate conduct, 
resulting character, and resulting remoter conduct?” 

Three aime “That’s true. We may, if we wish, say that 
in moral the first two are educational aims and the third 
A a is a life aim.” 

‘But we face this resulting remoter life conduct. We 
shall then aim at it as an educational aim?” 

“Quite true; and from that point of view it is perhaps 
wiser not to distinguish educational aims from life aims.” 

“TI thought we had already agreed that ‘education is 
lifesiid? 

“So we did, and what we have just said is but a new 
instance of that fact.’’ 

‘You said that our immediate aim should be conduct of 
a kind that will build the desired character. Do you believe 


MORAL EDUCATION 315 


people think much about that? It seems to me that mostly 
people tell children to keep quiet, for instance, not so much 
to change character as to get rid of the noise.” 

‘‘When parents and elders do so act, are they concerned 
then about the children and their future wel- 4. comfort 
fare or about themselves and their own present of parents 
peace and happiness?” ramep asta 

“Their own present peace and happiness, I suppose.’’ 

“But would you allow children to make life unbearable 
for othersabout them? I wouldn’t. I have always suspected 
that your whole reforming crowd thought that the whole 
world should be turned over to children to do as they pleased 
with. Now you have practically admitted it. If I had to 
choose between the two I’d say ‘Children should be seen and 
not heard.’ I am tee-totally opposed to your whole wishy- 
washy program.” 

“Yes, we know pretty well where you stand on these 
matters; but in this instance at least you conclude too 
hastily regarding what some others think. A question of 
fact was asked as to what parents and teachers do have in 
mind when they restrain children in a certain fashion. The 
question of humoring and spoiling children, which is essen- 
tially what you raise, we have several times discussed, and 
we shall return to it in a moment.”’ 

‘But I should like to press the question as to whether most 
parents and teachers do put their own present peace and 
happiness above the character needs of their children. I 
don’t believe it.” 

“Any mathematical determination of the instances is 
impossible, I suppose, and certainly unnecessary for our 
purposes. Would you agree that many parents and teachers 
do at times do this?” 

é Yes.”’ 

“And too often so act?” 


316 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


eR .7 

“Then we have a real problem to discuss.”’ 

“I should like to make a distinction here that seems to 
me important. As I see it, there are two ways of getting 
Two kinds of Children to keep quiet, or perhaps better, two 
control over ways of getting people to respect the rights and 
Con euce feelings of others. One way is to use threats or 
bribes; the other way is so to change their characters that 
they of themselves will wish to respect all proper rights and 
feelings of others.’’ | 

‘A very important distinction, and a capital one just at 
this point. Which of the two would you say uses the steps 
of moral education?” 

‘Why clearly the second, the method of changing the 
character and disposition.”’ 

‘The other sounds anti-moral, as was said 


Moral educa- ; i 
rev soa vm a little while ago.” 
ea by ‘Isn’t the distinction here much the same as 
wees the distinction there? The method of threats 


and bribes is one that relies merely upon the use of the 
physical environment; while the other is concerned with 
the innermost character?” 

‘Perhaps so, but I was thinking of the distinction between 
extrinsic and intrinsic incentives.” 

“Yes, and the distinction between ‘external’ and ‘in- 
ternal’ choices. With bribes and threats the approved con- 
duct is admittedly external and is expected to stay so. The 
aim of the other is to make the socially approved conduct 
to be also the internally desired conduct.” 

“Isn’t this the promising path toward the reconciliation 
of the demands of the individual with the demands of 
society?” 

“Yes; some call this the process of socializing the indi- 
vidual, getting him to the place where he, as an individual, 


MORAL EDUCATION 317 


wishes for himself the things that are at the same time good 
for all concerned.” 

“It might require the revision of some of our institutions, 
might it not?” 

“Yes, civilization must expect always to be concerned with 
these twin problems: on the one hand, building and keeping 
its institutions such that they would, if accepted, 
make for the good and happiness of all together; 
and on the other hand, building in its succes- 
sive generations the personal acceptance of such institutions. 
These are permanent tasks for mankind.” 

“I should like to go back to the parents. who make 
children keep quiet. I don’t quite get the different posi- 
tions or attitudes you think they might take toward their 
children.”’ 

“Tt seems to me that there are at least two contrasted 
positions: first, that of those who would stop the noise 
and are indifferent to the character effect of Twonvarot 
how they do it; and second, that of those who controlling 
seek primarily the character effect and are rela- °hiléren 
tively indifferent as to whether noise continues or is stopped. 
Between these two are many intermediate positions.” 

‘“Which would you take?”’ 

“To me it is a question of comparative values and their 
combination into the best possible result. We certainly 
wish our children not to interfere with the proper rights and 
feelings of others. We certainly wish our children to build 
the right kind of characters.” 

“I don’t see the contradiction. Why not let the children 
practice the consideration of the rights and feelings of others? 
This will get both the quiet and the moral growth. Why 
not?” 

“That’s what I say. Make them respect the rights of 
others. If they are unwilling, make them. If they still 


Individual 
and society 


318 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


won’t, punish them into it. There’s nothing like firmness. 
I am glad to see you coming round to my position.” 

‘Before you answer that, I’d like to put a case before the 
group for consideration: A tired father is trying to read in 
Meee ntanice the evening. The children become noisy. The 
or go to mother tells them that father is tired and sug- 
ssa gests that ‘we all try to keep quiet so that he 
may rest and enjoy home.’ ‘The children are quiet for a 
while. Then the noise again. Mother speaks the second 
time. A third time, father speaks in peremptory fashion: 
‘Your mother has spoken twice and you don’t mind her. 
I shall not speak again; if I hear any more noise you will 
go to bed at once. Do you understand?’ They do under- 
stand and they keep quiet. Now what I wish to know is, 
first, was this father concerned with character building or 
with his own peace and comfort?” 

“T can tell you. He cared only for his own peace and 
comfort.” 

‘“‘It would seem so; I don’t believe, however, we can tell 
unless we know more of what he thought. But I think we 
What these Can ask a more important question. What were 
children the children practicing?” 
eco ‘What do you mean? They practiced keep- 
ing quiet and they were learning to keep quiet. He did just 
right.” 

“They certainly kept quiet. But I don’t think that 
tells us just what we wish to know. We are thinking of 
moral character development. What traits, what personal 
traits, were they practicing? Were they practicing con- 
sideration or were they practicing prudence? Considera- 
tion for a tired father or prudence in the face of an angry 
father?”’ 

“Yes, that puts it well.” 

“It was prudence. You may be sure of that.” 


MORAL EDUCATION 319 


‘‘ Again I think we can’t say, unless we could look within ; 
but this much is certainly clear. They might keep quiet 
and practice either prudence or consideration. The fact 
that they keep quiet doesn’t tell us what character trait 
they are practicing.” 

‘You are certainly right about that, and I should like to 
ask about our homes and schools generally. Do they manage 
it so that children practice inwardly as well as outwardly 
the things they should practice? We make children keep 
_ quiet and we make them obey promptly, but what are the 
children really practicing, what are they thinking when they 
keep quiet and when they obey? These I say are matters too 
often overlooked, but they are, I think, really the most 
important things.” 

‘““T wish we might go more fully into this matter of how 
character is built. There are various things I don’t quite 
understand.” 

“The first thing I should like to ask is the relation of habit 
to character. Some people seem to take the two as the same, 
but I thought habit was something rather pjration of 
mechanical, confined to bodily movements.” _habit to 

“Strictly speaking, habit includes all the ways °4%4ter 
of behaving that we acquire, whether ways of thinking, of 
feeling, or of bodily movement. So character is simply the 
aggregate of our habits. I prefer to say the organized aggre- 
gate of working habits.”’ 

‘‘But the organization itself is simply habit over again, 
isn’t it?” 

“So it is, but I wish to call attention to the fact of organ- 
ization. Character must consider how the aggregate works 
as an aggregate.” 

‘“Why say working habits? Why not just habits?” 

“Strictly speaking it would suffice, but I wish to call 
attention to the fact that character especially contemplates 


320 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


actual working behavior — the habits that really constitute 
conduct. I say ‘working’ merely for emphasis.” 

“Why do you translate character into habit? Do we not 
know as much about the one as the other?” 

“The reason is that the word habit joins us up at once 
with our whole discussion on learning and how learning takes 

place. Habit is essentially an S—R bond 
na aii ~ affair. We thus should get light on how to build 
habits and so on how to build character.” 

‘There was so much said on learning that I hardly know 
what to pick out. What would you say is especially appli- 
cable here?” 

‘IT should wish to name three things, the law of exercise, 
the law of effect, and the law of associative shift.” 

“You do not omit set and readiness, your old stand-bys?” 

“Indeed no. They underlie and condition all discussions 
where learning is involved.”’ 

“What about the law of exercise?” 

“I was thinking particularly of a kind of negative way 
of stating it: We shall not make a habit of any trait unless 
we practice that trait.” 

‘That sounds too obvious to give much 
help.” 

“Obvious sounding or no, it is daily disregarded. I 
might say it again in two words: precise practice.” 

‘TI still don’t see.” 

“Go back to the irritated father. What should a father 
wish his children to practice in such a case? Consideration 
or prudence? What did they practice?” 

‘‘Clearly he should wish consideration.” 

“I don’t see why you harp so much on consideration or 
on what the children think. The thing the father wanted 
was quiet. I say the children practiced keeping quiet. 
That is precise enough too. What more do you want?” 


Precise 
practice 


MORAL EDUCATION 321 


‘Now you bring out into the open the very essence of 
moral conduct. There are two parts to any moral act and 
both should agree: first, the outward effect of tye essence 
the outward act — quiet in this case and what of moral 
it means to all concerned; second, the thinking °™44*+ 
and attitude — motive and intention some prefer to call 
it — that go along with the outward act and join it up 
with character as a whole.” 

“Might we not say that this thinking and attitude are 
exactly what give character to the act?”’ 

‘““You are right, and this helps us to see what morality is. 
We might say it in slightly different words as a unified self 
vs. a divided or badly organized self. Our aim 7, inte- 
is such an integration and organization of all gration of 
the habits in character that the full character °4t@¢ter 
shines out in each act, speaks through each act.” 

“Ts that why you are so concerned here with the thinking 
and attitude involved?” 

“That’s part of it, but there’s more yet. The fact that 
they keep quiet doesn’t tell whether the children are 
practicing love or hatred, affection or fear, consideration 
or mere prudence. We wish quiet for the father, but we 
certainly are also concerned that the children build love 
and affection and consideration and especially an acting 
in connection with these and in obedience to these.” 

“This, then, is what you mean when you say ‘precise 
practice’?”’ 

“T mean that if a trait is to be built, as affection, we must 
practice precisely that thing, affection.”’ 

“You mean too that if the child practices hatred or fear 
he is not building love or affection?” 

“Exactly so. ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
also reap.’ There is no truer saying.” 

‘Then what do you say of most school discipline?” 


322 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘At best most of it fails to have children practice desir- 
able traits. Much of practice builds positively bad traits.” 
‘Do you call prudence a bad trait?” 


A common : Phas ; ‘ 
cola ‘“‘Prudence in affairs is a very important trait, 
school slow in the building, too; but when we use 
discipline 


‘prudence’ as in our discussion here we mean 
that the children may be doing an outwardly good act, but 
are inwardly thinking of themselves, of saving themselves 
from threatened punishment, and of course are thinking 
but little, if any, of their father and his feelings.” 

“Then the badness of this kind of prudence is its selfish- 
ness?” 

Tay ORG 

‘‘And the father might, it is likely, have been forcing upon 
his children the practice of selfishness?” 

“Yes, that’s what I mean.” 

‘‘And do you think the results bear out your contention?”’ 

‘“‘Life is very complicated and ascribing this or that bad 
trait to this or that procedure is at best an uncertain affair.” 

‘But if you had to say?” 

‘Tf I had to say, I should say this: that there is in our 
American political and social life a very great deal of selfish- 
Bad results  2€88, of prudence in this bad sense. Many men 
in citizen- will do anything they can ‘get away with.’ 
a If we had wished to build this trait in our 
citizens we could hardly have chosen a school and family 
discipline better suited to do it than that too frequently 
found.” 

‘‘Do you mean the kind used by this father?” 

“Yes, I think many children have seldom practiced at 
home or in school any conduct except on the shut-up-or-go- 
to-bed basis.”’ 

“But isn’t it hard to get children to be quiet on any 
other basis?” 


MORAL EDUCATION 323 


“It may well be, but I insist that you cannot reap what 
you have not sowed. It is practice, precise practice, that 
builds. Nothing less will suffice.” 

‘Then moral education must very largely concern itself 
va securing the right inner attitudes.” rte 

‘Yes, that is a prime objective.” cationic 

‘‘And mere outer behavior will not suffice?”’? concerned 

oe i : ie with attitudes 

It certainly will not. 

“Then you would not try to get pin-drop order and 
quiet?” 

“‘T abominate it.” 

“Do you really dislike quiet?” 

“In itself, no; when it is got at the expense of moral 
character, yes.” 

“Does this maxim of ‘precise practice’ partly explain 
why you wish children to practice responsibility?” 

“Yes. I wish them to build that very desirable and com- 
plex thing called responsibility. Then I must wish them to 
practice responsibility of many different kinds 
and conditions.”’ 

“One thing troubles me. You use a good 
many general terms like ‘selfishness,’ ‘consideration,’ and 
‘responsibility,’ but my study of psychology has taught me 
to be careful of such.” 

‘And you are right to be troubled. I often fear that I shall 
be misunderstood. Such general terms are 

; angerous 
shorthand terms covering a great many par- use of 
ticulars. I am quite justified in wishing unsel- the 
fishness say as a characteristic; but I am Agni 
wholly unjustified in letting you think that practicing un- 
selishness in one thing means unselfishness everywhere 
else.”’ 

“The general law of transfer of training holds here, does 
it not?” 


Pin-drop 
order 


Practicing 
responsibility 


324 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘Yes, unselfishness built up in one situation will carry 
over into another related line only in the degree that 
there are common elements.” 


Transfer of 

training ‘But you still wish your child to practice a 

ares proper unselfishness in each thing that he does?” 
‘“Yes, indeed.” 


‘“‘If a good many particular cases of unselfishness are built 
up, may not the child generalize from these and so help in 
building up a more generalized trait?” 

‘‘ Authorities differ somewhat. I should say yes, provided 
the child is old enough to generalize and does generalize, and 
provided then there be practice in obeying the 
generalization.” 

“Will a name help?”’ 

‘Yes, indeed. The terms ‘fair,’ ‘no fair,’ ‘fair play,’ and 
the like help boys greatly to generalize the notion.” 

‘‘And the more consciously the notion is held the better 
promise of transfer to a new case?” 

Vag: 

‘Does this mean that moral education differs according 
to the age of the child?” 

‘Practically, yes, very greatly.” 

‘(We distinguished earlier the outer act from the inner 
attitude that accompanies. While the child is very young, 
rahe bs what he is to be taught to do or not to do, has 
cation differs to be very simple and very definite. ‘Father’s 
with the age ook — don’t touch it.’ ‘Ink —don’t touch 
ofthe child ., , 

it.’ As he grows older, reasons can be named in 
connection.” 

“But you would, all the while, wish the child to practice 
from higher rather than lower motives, wouldn’t you?” 

‘‘A good general rule is to use the highest that will work.” 

“You mean that you would go down the line till you got 
one that would work?”’ 


General- 
ization 


MORAL EDUCATION 325 


‘Your question is too difficult for a single answer. In 
general, avoid severe measures. Many slight pains if 
invariable will teach generally better than one big one.” 

‘You mean better, all things considered?”’ 

‘““Yes, especially considering the attendant responses. I 
am very anxious that my child love me and that he build 
up a very firm belief in my fairness and in my sympathy. 
These things have to be considered.” 

‘‘And you would pay more and more attention to the 
child’s thought and attitude response as he grew older?”’ 

. “Yes, that’s it.” 

‘J thought we were going to discuss the Law of 
Effect.” | 

‘So we are, but I fear our time is up. We ean take that 
next time.” 

‘‘How shall we sum up what we have gone over this 
afternoon?” 

“We first saw that moral education is not a separate kind 
of education but essentially a part or rather an aspect of all 
education. We have constantly had this moral 
aspect in mind in our previous discussions. 
Conduct and character changes follow each other in endless 
turn throughout life. Each act of conduct was conditioned 
by the existing character and helped to build a new character. 
Since human control is direct only of physical things our 
immediate aim has to be present conduct, that it be such as 
to build good character. It is, however, probably right to 
say that in moral education our prime aim is character 
building, for character is our safest hope for future conduct. 
We saw that, sad to say, many parents and teachers are so 
much concerned with the immediate outward effects of their 
children’s conduct that they jeopardize and even damage 
their children’s character development in order to secure 
their own peace and comfort. 


Summary 


326 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘Habit is the unit element of character. To build charac- 
ter then is to build the right habits of thinking and feeling 
as well as of outward behaving. To this end exercise is a 
prime consideration. Precise practice of any trait is neces- 
sary if that trait is to be built into habit and character. It 
is then not sufficient that children practice merely outwardly 
good behavior. The inner attitude is an essential part. This 
is a factor often overlooked, and asa child grows older should 
loom larger.’ 

‘Did you say we should next time discuss the Law of 
Effect?” 

‘Yes, and associative shift.” 

‘“‘It seems to me that this matter of moral education is 
very complicated.” 

“‘So it is, and the end is not yet in sight.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Kitparrick — “Disciplining Children,” Journal of Educational 
Method, 1: 415-421 (June, 1922). 

Dewey — Moral Principles in Education. 

Kiupatrick — Source Book in the Philosophy of Education, No. 
537, 538, 541, 542, 544, 552, 557. 

JAMES — Talks to Teachers, Ch. 8, 15. 

Dewey — Democracy and Education, Ch. 26. 

THORNDIKE — Principles of Teaching, Ch. 11. 


CHAPTER XX 
MoraL Epucation — Concluded 


‘“‘T believe we agreed to discuss to-day the action of the 
Law of Effect in moral education.” 

‘Before we begin I have a question. After our talk, | 
went away feeling that in this matter of moral education 
parents and teachers have less actual control over their 
children than most of them think. Am I yay ot Eaect 
right?” in moral 

“T don’t quite get your meaning.” AU in 

“T mean that many in charge of children set their teeth 
and say that these children shall learn to do thus and so, 
in effect shall build this or that into their contro by 
characters. Now from our discussions I get the parents in- 
idea that the parent’s part is only indirect. SST EN 
The thing that counts most, at least with those above early 
childhood, is what the children themselves feel and think 
when they are acting.”’ 

‘Exactly so. What the children think and feel as they 
act is probably the largest factor in determining what traits 
shall go into their characters.”’ 

‘And this accompanying inner attitude, I understand you 
to mean, is largely beyond the control of parents and 
teachers.” 

“Yes, that is what I meant.” 

“You mean that we cannot of our will make children 
practice this or that feeling?” 

“Yes, Often and often does a parent stand helpless as 


the child seems bent on wishing wrong things.” 
327 


323 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘Part of this helplessness of parents and teachers we saw 
when we were discussing ‘precise practice.’ Wecannot make 
children practice what we will.” 

“Yes, is there something else?” 

‘“‘That’s what I was thinking. The Law of Effect still 
further lessens the power of parents and teacher.” 

‘How so?” 

“In this way: the Law of Effect says that whether any 
act shall grow into a habit and so become part of charac- 
ter or grow into aversion-depends on the actor, the child.” 

“You mean on whether it gives him satisfaction or annoy- 
ance?”’ 

“Yes, and this is most certainly beyond the mere say-so 
of parents.” 

“We may by our bribes or threats make children act out- 
wardly in a certain way, but we do not in this fashion make 
the act satisfactory to him. That’s for the child to say. 
Something in him decides.” 

‘‘And not only may he feel aversion, but our efforts at 
force may even increase this aversion?” 

SRV OG bi 

“Then I don’t see what we can do. If we cannot make 
children behave, what is left?’ 

“Your question is clear cut and brings the issue out into 
the open: If we cannot make children behave, what is left?” 

“Ought we not to remember, in connection, the two 
contrasted kinds of conduct?”’ 

‘Which two?” 

“The conduct that comes only from threats or bribes, 
and the conduct that comes because the individual chooses 
Twoways that kind of conduct, being himself that kind 
of securing of person.” 

Se ‘‘And which does moral education seek?” 

“Clearly, the second. That man only is to be counted 


MORAL EDUCATION 329 


honest who of himself chooses the path of honesty, being 
himself that kind of person.”’ 

‘‘And to build this kind of honesty one must practice it?” 

“Yes, and not only that, but must practice it with satis- 
faction.” 

‘““You believe in that maxim I see, ‘Practice with satis- 
faction.’ ” 

‘““Indeed I do.” Pratiics 

‘“TDoesn’t it combine the laws of Exercise with 
and Effect?” satisfaction 

‘““Ves, though of course it gives only the positive side of 
effect. We must not forget the negative suet: ‘Practice 
with annoyance builds an aversion.’ ”’ 

“TDoesn’t this ‘Practice with satisfaction’ still further 
limit the power of parent and child?” 

“Yes, it is the child’s satisfaction or annoyance that 
counts, and we cannot control that.” 

“T thought you were going to tell us poor parents and 
teachers what to do; instead of that you still further lessen 
our power.”’ 

“That’s true. If ‘Practice with satisfaction’ is the 
governing rule, and if parents cannot make their children 
practice and cannot make satisfaction attend, what eens 
then they do seem helpless. They are ruled out and teachers 
on both counts.” ett 

‘What can they do?” 

“They can work within limits along both lines. They can 
help bring the practice and they can help bring the appro- 
priate satisfaction or annoyance.”’ 

‘‘How can they help?”’ 

‘They help the practice mainly by giving children oppor- 
tunities.” 

‘‘ And the satisfaction?” 

“This mainly comes from the same opportunities.” 


330 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Tt all sounds rather weak to me, but I should like to hear 
more about it.”’ 

“T mean that morals is a matter of living with people, 
living with other people in such way as to bring the greatest 

happiness to all.” 
Paaneee ‘And the way to build morals is to practice 
living?”’ 

“That’s exactly what I mean. To build morals, children 
should have the opportunity to practice a rich and varied 
social life.” 

“But shouldn’t there be some way to tell the wrong from 
the right?” 

‘“‘Most emphatically, yes. They must practice, and must 
know when they go right and when they go wrong, and 
they must be glad when they go right and sorry 


Discrimina- 

tive practice when they go wrong.” 

yeerntromrstd ‘There’s yaur ‘practice with satisfaction,’ I 
Pp] 

see. 


‘Yes, ‘Practice the right with satisfaction’ and ‘Practice 
the wrong with annoyance.’ ”’ 

‘‘And something must tell them the right from the wrong?” 

“Yes, but the more nearly they see it for themselves the 
better.” 

“You mean that, living together, it is easy for them to see 
that some things are right because they work well and others 
are wrong because they work ill?” 

‘Yes, on the whole they can see what they ought to learn; 
but of course we have to help.”’ 

‘I see now what you mean. We help them to practice by 
helping to provide opportunities for them to live.” 

“Yes, and we help them to feel glad or sorry at the 
right thing by helping them to see how things work.” 

‘Do you mean then that what you call living must be the 
main reliance of moral education?” 


MORAL EDUCATION 331 


eViog 22 

“And you mean to say that moral instruction and punish- 
ments are not the main reliance?”’ 

“T do certainly mean that. Ido not exclude either moral 
instruction or punishments; but these, I say, cannot form a 
steady diet for moral growth. They are more a eB idl da 
like tonics and medicines; rather to be used on like medicine 
the physician’s prescription nie things have for emer- 
unfortunately got into a bad way.” ar 

“T thought we were going to discuss the Law of Effect.” 

‘We have been discussing it. It’s contained in the proper 
working of social living.”’ 

‘“‘T don’t see it.” 

‘‘Suppose some children are building a fhonte and one boy 
lays down his hammer for a moment and another boy 
wrongly takes it off. It is likely enough that 
the first boy will resent this. A situation of mahied aa heer 

My u prises include 
social stress arises. The wise teacher will now inherent 
interfere as little as possible, but yet enough to enti oa 
see that the group as a whole makes the right 
distinction and decides rightly as to what should be done. 
If Boy Number 2, as will often happen, remains for a while 
blinded by his own step, the other boys who do see clearly 
will (or may be led to) insist that he accept the group judg- 
ment. His wrong has brought annoyance.”’ 

“But it was the judgment of the other boys and not his 
own opinion that controlled him. This seems a clear case 
of coercion. Why shouldn’t the teacher decide at once? 
He can very likely make the distinctions plainer than the 
boys can. I don’t see theneed of group living, as you 
call it.” 

“In the first place, the group enterprise gave the oppor- 
tunity for the hammer to be taken. Many and varied group 
enterprises will mean many and varied chances to practice 


302 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


group morals. The hammer episode was but one false step 
to many right steps of codperation and the like. All the 
others were instances of ‘practice with satis- 
sabi ate faction’ and accordingly of strengthening and 
building social habits.” 
‘But the hammer episode is still an example of coercion, 
ISN Gr bia 
‘We have, I think, discussed this once before. The boy 
who took the hammer doubtless did have at the outset a 
mind-set that upheld his conduct. If the teacher —and 
not the other boys — had decided against him, his mind-set 
might easily have continued. It certainly would have’ 
continued if the other boys had sided with him against the 
teacher. But as the group decided against the boy, his 
opposing mind-set was weakened. You know it is hard for 
us to hold out against our own crowd. By the next day the 
opposition and any trace of resentment has probably gone 
down before the united opinion of the group.”’ 
“It is very interesting to me to think that all the nine 
hundred and ninety-nine social relationships that involve 
no appreciable social strain are still educative 


fect eed for morals. I hadn’t thought of that before. I 


cation in had fixed my attention on the single thousandth 
prone instance.” 
activities 


“It is interesting, but we have to distinguish. 
Some of those nine hundred and ninety-nine have already 
been so well learned that there is little more to learn about 
them. But out of varied group enterprises there must of 
necessity arise novel situations and novel aspects of old 
situations and novel connections of old materials. Most of 
these will probably be met in the right fashion. If so, each 
one represents positive moral growth.” 
“But is it not true that the more attention we give to the 
situation, the better the learning?” 


MORAL EDUCATION 333 


“Yes, on the whole that is true; but conscious attention 
ean result in a right decision as truly as in a wrong decision. 
As the conscious right decisions are likely to be more numer- 
ous than the conscious wrong decisions, what was said of the 
positive learning still holds.” 

‘‘And when the wrong decision comes before the group, 
if the teacher is wise and tactful, most of the group will 
decide rightly and this under very conscious attention. So 
even of the individual wrong act, the class as a whole will 
get positive moral growth.” 

“Your mathematical discussion of the proportion of 
positive moral learning is very interesting. I had not 
thought of it that way.” | 

‘But all this positive moral learning depended, did it not, 
on the opportunities the children had for actual social 
living?”’ | 

“Yes, mainly on the existence of group enterprises.” 

‘And the hammer episode tells what you mean by pro- 
viding opportunities and helping to guide the process of 
moral choices?”’ 

“Vas,”’ 

“And ‘precise practice,’ ‘Practice the right with satis- 
faction,’ and ‘Practice the wrong with annoyance’ are all 
involved.”’ 

‘“‘Bxactly so.” 

“JT am troubled about a further thing.”’ 

“What is that?” 

‘Those children who wouldn’t keep quiet when the father 
was tired. Isn’t it true that they ought to be made to 
practice keeping quiet, even if only for prudence’ 
sake, rather than be allowed to practice a dis- 
regard of their father’s rights and feelings? Ii 
they practice disregard and ‘get away with it,’ is not that a 
case of ‘practicing the wrong with satisfaction’ ?”’ 


How coercion 
may do good 


334 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“It may sometimes be so, and we certainly should not 
allow children to practice the wrong with satisfaction.” 

‘“Doesn’t this complicate the question of moral edu- 
cation?” 

“Yes, it does. But we have said all the time that the 
parent must if possible bring it about that the child prac- 
tice the right with satisfaction, and that if he should 
practice the wrong, annoyance should attend. Your ques- 
tion shows the complications that may arise, but intro- 
duces no new principle.”’ 

“Will not a child who learns to keep quiet for prudence’ 
sake learn more readily to keep quiet for consideration’s 
sake than will one who learned selfishly to disregard the 
feelings of his father?” 

“I think you are right. At any rate it may so hap- 
pen.” 

‘It is thus a case of associative shift?” 

“It may be.” 

‘Do you mean by associative shift that one first learns 
to do a thing for one motive and later shifts to doing it from 

another motive?”’ 


Associative ; ; shat : 
shift in “This does take place in associative shift, 
re edu- but the positive factor of association is neces- 
cation 


sary else associative shift will not take place.” 

“IT don’t get your meaning.” 

“You recall Pawlow’s dog. His mouth watered because 
the tempting morsel was placed on his tongue. At the same 
time a bell was rung sharply. The two happened thus in 
association many times until at length the bell alone sufficed 
to make the dog’s mouth water. The shift was made, but 
association was an important element.” 

‘You think then that the children might begin by keeping 
quiet through fear of punishment, but later come to keep 
quiet from consideration only?” 


MORAL EDUCATION 335 


“Yes, if the children are young enough and the thought 
of consideration be constantly associated.” 

“Why young?” 

‘(Older children can make better distinctions. They may 
see so clearly why they act in the first case that no shift 
will take place.” The shift not 

“Then the shift is not certain to take place?” certain to 

‘“Tndeed it is not certain.” Bako b ules 

“What about prizes and rewards in this connection?”’ 

“JT think they belong just here if anywhere.’ 

“You are opposed to them?” 

“On the whole, yes.”’ 

“But you think they may at times serve on the principle 
of associative shift?”’ 

“They may.” 

‘Would this hold of the badge and distinctions of the 
Boy Scouts and other various organizations Are ie 
that use such?” rewards and 

“So far as I can see, yes. The badge or associative 
distinction may induce a child initially to do a : 
certain desirable thing. After the child begins doing it, the 
activity may come to be directly interesting. If so a shift 
has taken place.” 

“ And you would approve this?” 

“Approve is a strong word. If these things take place 
in this fashion and if there seems no other better way 
in which to build the interest, then I should approve.” 

“You call it all building interests?”’ of 

a ; ; d Ue oral edu- 

It is, I think, essentially that — so building cation largely 
a, trait into one’s character that thereafter one building 
wishes to do the thing in and of itself.” eet 

“You think then of buttons, badges, honors, distinctions 
and the like as scaffolding?” 

‘“Pxactly so. We may put up a scaffold if that is the only 


336 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


way or the best way to build the house, but it is the house 
we expect to live in and we mean to tear the scaffolding 
Rewards and down.” 

honors as “Tf taking down the scaffolding causes the 
peatolding Ghose ito fall, we have failed?’ 

“Exactly so; that’s a good test.” 

“T wish we might go a little more thoroughly into the 
question of morality. I don’t know how much is habit and 
how much is thought and I don’t know which comes first, 
habit or thought.” 

“Which comes first depends partly on the age of the 
learner. With a very young child an almost bare habit is — 
coe possibly the most we can get. As the child 
thought in grows older more thought is possible. After 
moral edu- a, while true moral deliberation is possible.” 
ean ‘You put thought after habit then?” 

“In this matter of growing up, yes. But there is more 
to be said.” 

“You mean that the older person meeting a like situation 
the second or third time shouldn’t have to deliberate?” 

“Yes. Suppose I, a grown man, pass a fruitstand and 
have to deliberate whether or not I shall slip off an apple 
while the vendor’s attention is distracted. Suppose further 
that I do decide not to take an apple. What do you think 
of my honesty?” 

“IT should hesitate to trust such a person. At his 
time of life he should have settled this question long 
before.” | 

“You mean that this moral deliberation, if it had ever 
been necessary should long ago have gone over into fixed 
habit with uncertainty gone?” 

“Yes, and in this sense thought precedes habit.” 

“T believe I see now the different time relations between 
habit and thought in morals.”’ 


MORAL EDUCATION 337 


“You speak of moral deliberation, would you mind saying 
a further word about it?” 

“T am glad to do so. The process is much the same as 
that of the complete act of thought previously 
discussed, but there are certain novel points Pear 

eliberation 
we may well dwell upon. 

‘‘Moral deliberation occurs when we find ourselves pulled 
in contradictory directions. We must act, but we do not 
have available an appropriate moral behavior pattern — 
we do not see a course which promises to conserve all the 
values at stake. In such case we take up the opposed lines 
of action, asking of each: If I do this, what will happen? 
When we have thus, in imagination, followed out each 
course as far as we can, we then compare the two opposed 
lines of foreseen consequences and choose the one that seems 
best to us.” 

‘“‘How does one decide as between the two contrasted lines 
of expected consequences? How do we tell which is better?” 

“Tt would take us afield into ethics to answer this question. 
I will only say that each one decides as to good and bad out 
of his philosophy, that is, according to what manner of man 
he himself is.’ 

‘And after one has chosen, what then?”’ 

“Tf the moral character has been well built, the appropri- 
ate response then takes place. One acts according to his 
decision.” 

“T seem to see three things in the working of a good 
moral character: first, a sensitivity as to what may be 
involved in a situation; second, a moral de- ies 
: , a ements in 
liberation to decide what should be done; and the good 
third, the doing or effecting of the decision so moral char- 
ee a? acter 

“The first and third make me think of S— R.” 

‘““How so?” 


338 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘One becomes the more sensitive to the stimulus of any 
S— R response, the more often, the more promptly, and the 
more satisfactorily he acts upon it. Obey astimulus and we 
become the more sensitive to it. Disregard it and we become 
callous to it.” 

“That’s good. Now how about the third?” 

“The third emphasizes the other aspect of the S>R 
response. We will respond (R) to any situation (S) in the 
degree that the connection between the two has been well 
built.” 

‘From this it would seem that we should form a great 
many S— R responses covering as well as may be the moral 
field. If these are well formed we shall then be morally 
sensitive to their demands as seen in any situation. If there 
is no contradiction in the resulting demands we shall then 
act in response to the stimuli felt to be present.” 

“You mean we shall act in response to a stimulus if the 
appropriate response bond connection has been built?” 

“Yes, that’s right.”’ 

“And we deliberate if we find ourselves pulled into 
contradictory responses by the S—R bonds called into 
action?” 

‘Yes, deliberation is to find if possible which response will 
best meet the demands felt in the situation.” 

“Tt seems to me that, fastening attention on the S> R 
conception, we may restate the foregoing in a way to give 
us helpful suggestions for moral education?” 

‘“‘How would you restate it?” 


Three con- iT : : 
ei dntalae As I see it, we should seek to build three 
the good things: 
I h one be’ e e . 
ae a “1. A stock of ideas to describe and identify the © 


moral situations likely to arise. 
“2. Skill in judging such matters so as, if need arise, to decide 
efficiently which idea best fits a given situation, and if — 
the case be novel what response is appropriate. 


MORAL EDUCATION «339 


“3. A stock of responses joined appropriately with the ideas 
above described so that when a particular idea has been 
selected its appropriate response will follow.” 


“YT understand you mean this as a program of moral 
education?” 

pry ag? 

‘‘Would some of the ideas have more idea content than 
others?”’ 

“Indeed, yes. Go back to the symbol S— R. So far as 
I can see, any idea under (1) above may serve as an 8, and 
these would vary from the barest sign up to the completest 
system of philosophy.” 

‘‘And similarly with the R’s?”’ 

‘Again, yes. They would vary from the seh test look of 
recognition up to the most elaborate and inclusive scheme 
ever worked out for bettering civilization.” 

“You called this a program for moral education, how 
would you go about it? What would you do?”’ 

“T should expect to build, as occasion offered, the ideas 
with their appropriate responses, and to develop, as fully 
as was feasible, the widely varied skills in judging of such 
matters.” 

‘Will the ideas help in judging?”’ 

“Yes, they form the basis upon which judgment must 
work, but actual skill must be developed.” 

“How do you build ideas in this field?” 

“Just as anywhere else. First of all, the child will get 
at least a crude idea from hearing about a thing Ppa ees 
or hearing a term used. With this crude idea are built in 
as a nucleus, he should have opportunity to try the moral 
it out under such varied conditions as (a) will hen 
show where it is strong and where weak, where adequate 
and where inadequate; and (b) will fix the strong and ade- 
quate points and piece out the weak and inadequate 
points.”’ 


340 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“T was thinking that our discussion of psychological and 
logical is pertinent here.”’ 

“It is pertinent. The alternating series of psychological 
and logical is exactly the process of building more and more 
adequate ideas.”’ 

_ “These two ways of building ideas are the same way, are 
they not?” 

“Substantially so. Each succeeding logical is an idea, 
and each next psychological more or less tests that idea.” 

“All this means actual experience, doesn’t it?” 

“Yes, much and varied actual experiencing.”’ 

“Do you mean we cannot use other people’s experiences 
in building ideas?”’ 

“No, this repeats a discussion we had once before. We 
can use a certain proportion of vicarious experiences, but 
there must be a large substratum of first-hand experiences 


to begin with, and as often as feasible we should test our — 


resulting ideas on the hard facts of first-hand experience.” 
‘“How about books or stories or pictures?” 


“So far as concerns the building of ideas about morality 


The use of 


and the practicing of judgment on such ideas, © 


books, stories, books and the like may be of great assistance. 


and pictures 


furnish rich material for this purpose.” 
‘You seem to have limitations in mind.” 
‘‘I was thinking of the need for first-hand experience in 


order to build item 3 of the program, the stock of responses. t 
We cannot build a response without responding, — 


How moral Bier : ; 
responses so we are severely limited here. Situations 


shapes reported in books and elsewhere afford but a 
colorless and unreal responding. A little is possible. A 
child may say, ‘If I ever get a chance I’ll do thus and so.’ 
This has some effect, but such effects are slight in com- 
parison with actual responding to actual situations.”’ 


Literature and history and biography all | 


! 


MORAL EDUCATION 341 


“Your conclusion then for moral education is that we need 
much actual practice in life situations?” 

“Yes, many varied social life experiences calling forth 
abundant life reactions from the participants.” 

‘Does this mean a change in our ordinary schoolrooms?” 

‘Indeed it does. The ordinary school with fixed desks, 
with lessons mostly memorized from books, 
with the teachers settling practically every ques- peaae inal f 
tion — such a school situation furnishes so little not adapted 
opportunity at real living as practically to starve peat 
the children morally.” 

‘“‘Does this account for the wide demand for moral instruc- 
tion and for lessons in citizenship and the like?” 

“‘It certainly has much to do with it. If we had set out 
to devise a system that would prevent moral development 
we could hardly have surpassed our hitherto prevalent 
practice in this respect.” 

“You think then the public school cannot build morals?” 

‘“Indeed, I do not. I think it has abundant possibilities.” 

‘You mean it has possibilities but has not 


R ; The public 

tried to realize them?”’ school and 

“Fxactly.” moral edu- 
cation 


‘What should it do?” 

‘“Get a change of heart in superintendent, supervisor, and 
teacher as to what is of most worth. Stop stressing skills 
and facts to the hurt of everything else. Make 

: yen: ; : Changes 

our schools into social institutions. Encourage needed to 
codperative enterprises. Change the curriculum &et moral 
from extrinsic to intrinsic subject-matter. Seek piece 
activities that challenge the deepest interest and the highest 
powers of the children. In it all and through it all seek to 
make our children increasingly sensitive to the moral aspects 
of life. Seize every opportunity to build in them a sense of 
responsibility for group values.”’ 


342 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“T accept practically all you say, but I am troubled to 
hear no discussion of duty. Do you not believe in building 
Place of duty Sense of duty in children?” 
in moral “A sense of duty well built is a great moral 
eee asset, and I should try to build it.”’ 

“You seem lukewarm. I think duty the greatest thing 
in morals if not the sum of it.” 

‘“Duty may in a certain logical sense be the sum of morals, 
but it does not follow that we should make moral education 
depend on building one.all inclusive notion of duty.” 

‘“You would disapprove such an effort?”’ 

“IT certainly would. I consider duty in this all-inclusive 
sense to be correspondingly lacking in specific content. It 
Duty! honey: is probably best conceived as a general notion 
etc.asrein- which along with such similar conceptions as 
forcements —_ honor, plighted word, ‘what will people think,’ 
can be built up to the place where they have distinct value 
for reinforcement purposes. Frequently one’s moral strength 
is just balanced. To feel that the matter at hand isa duty, 
to be able to say ‘My honor demands it,’ to think ‘I have 
given my word’—any one of these may save the day 
provided we have previously built a strong response to duty 
or honor or plighted word as the case may be.”’ 

‘Then we must be careful to build such a reliable response 

to duty for example?”’ 
Ayala “Yes, and it is not easy. Many a parent 
duty must has for a long time hurt any use of the term duty 
be built by making it hateful to the child. It is here as 
elsewhere, ‘practice with satisfaction.’ ”’ 

‘Do you not believe in direct moral instruction then?” 

“If you mean by direct moral instruction 
Direct moral using some textbook with set lessons, no.” 
instruction { 

‘‘But what about a set time when moral 
matters are so discussed as to clarify concepts in the field?” 


MORAL EDUCATION 343 


‘Opinions differ. My own opinion is that this may be 
done with older children if you have a very good teacher to 
take charge of it; but great care must be taken that it not 
be expected to take the place of intelligent oversight of 
actual moral living.”’ 

“You think that the main reliance must be zestful social 
living properly directed ?”’ 

‘“Eixactly so.” sat 

‘‘And that means a change of heart, as you reliance in 
said, among school people?”’ moral edu- 

‘““Yes. We must put first things first.”’ Sac 

‘“You mean value habits and attitudes above skills and 
facts?” | 

ey es.’ 

“But you would not disregard facts and skills?” 

‘‘No but I would give them their due subordination in a 
scheme of fruitful living.” 

‘ And is your last word for moral education zestful social 
living properly directed?”’ 

‘“‘Yes, zestful social living under the guidance of those who, 
on the one hand, appreciate social moral values and, on the 
other, love children and know how to lead them.” 

‘‘Zestful social living under wise guidance. This must be 
our main reliance.” 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 
See references at the end of Chapter XIX (page 326). 


CHAPTER XXI 
SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 


“Could we not to advantage sum up what we have been 
talking over this year?”’ 

‘Or better still, why not consider certain points that will 
round out our ideas as to what to do about it all?” 

“What point had you in mind? Possibly we can do 
both.”’ 

“One thing I should like to ask about, and that is the 
word ‘project.’ I have heard a great deal about the ‘project 
method.’ If I understand it, that’s what we 
have been talking about a good deal of the time, 
but I don’t believe any one has used the word 


The term 
“project” 


even once.” 

‘Do you know why?” 

“No, why?” 

“T can’t answer for any one else, but I have been following 
the practice I observed at the university where I studied 
under a man who has done a good deal to spread the idea. 
I remember, too, his advice.”’ 

‘And what was that?” 

‘“He said the merits of purposeful activity depend on how 
well it will work if given a fair chance and not at all on the 
name assigned to it and still less on who first used the name. 
He refused to get stirred up by disputes, and he would not 
use the term ‘project’ at all till the doctrines had all been 
discussed, so insistent was he that we not mistake the 
name for the thing signified.”’ 

‘Don’t you think, however, a name has a good deal to 


do with the spread of an idea?” 
344 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 345 


“Tt may very well so act. A pat name attracts attention. 
People ask then what it means.”’ 

“Yes, and many natural born faddists take it up at once 
in order to be ‘up with the times,’ just as young people wish 
to wear ‘the latest thing.’ ” 

‘“‘Can a good thing bea fad? I thought a fad 
was just an empty show.” 

“Certainly, a good thing may be a fad. If those who 
practice a thing don’t know or care why they use it but 
simply do it to ‘get on the band wagon,’ as the politicians 
say, or to draw attention to themselves, then that thing is 
to them a fad.” 

“Theard a great scholar in literature say that we nowadays 
make a fad and fetish of spelling. He said uniform spelling 
was not necessary, that Shakespeare didn’t know how to 
spell even his own name or, perhaps better, he spelled it 
almost any way that the fancy of the moment struck him.” 

‘Well, can’t we get on with the project? Do you mean 
that when we were discussing purposeful activity and 
simultaneous learnings we were discussing the 
project method?” Siete 

‘“Eixactly so.” 

“T thought a method was a device. I should hardly call 
purposeful activity a device.” 

“Method is differently conceived by different people. 
There are some, as we saw, who believe in education as mere 
preparation for future living and therefore are yretnod not 
concerned as to how best to get their daily or necessarily 
weekly quotas of extrinsic subject-matter * eye 
learned. These people are almost sure to think of method 
as a matter of device. But there is a much broader notion 
possible. You recall our discussion of the ‘Wider Problem 
of Method’ [Chapters I and IX]. It was there brought out 
that how we influence the child, the way we speak to him, 


Fads 


346 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


the kind of house we provide, all his surroundings, in general 
all the ways in which we treat him — all these things have 
great effect on the many simultaneous responses he makes, 
inwardly and outwardly. And from these many responses 
comes his character.’ 

“Tf I understand you, all that we do to the child or let 
happen to him that stimulates him in any way is to be 
thought of as having method effect?”’ 

“Exactly so. And it is in this broad sense that our wish 
to use child purposes is a matter of method. We believe 
that this way of treating children stimulates them helpfully 
in very many ways.” 

‘You defend then the term ‘project method’? ” 

“Tf it is to be thought of as a device for the ‘painless 
putting across’ of prior chosen subject-matter, no, I abomi- 
nate it. I saw recently a book telling how to use the project 
method in religious education that illustrates this wrong use. 
“But if it be thought of as the purposeful way of treating 
children in order to stir the best in them and then to trust 
them to themselves as much as possible, yes, I approve it. 
But the term ‘project’ must not be allowed to distract 
attention from the reality back of it. It is the reality and 
not the name that concerns us.”’ 

‘‘Did this book of which you speak use ‘purposeful activ- 
ity’ as its definition of the project?” 

“No, I thought it found another definition better suited 
to its device idea.” 

‘How many different types of projects are there?” 

“For myself I recognize four types useful to distinguish.” 

“You don’t deny there are other schemes of classification ?”’ 

‘““No, indeed. There are many other useful 
classifications. These four are chosen to show 
that the different typical procedures are pro- 


Types of 
projects 


vided for.” 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 347 


“Tet us keep in mind that a project is an instance of 
purposeful activity —it is the pursuit of a purpose. Then 
first of all contrast producers with consumers. yp. pro- 
Type I is the Producer’s Project, in which the ducer’s 
purpose is to produce something. This varies oan 
through the widest conceivable range in importance, from 
the smallest child’s most temporary sand house to the 
making of a nation or a world association of nations — in 
material that may be used, from the stone in the walk under 
our feet to the spiritual yearning of a prayer. Wherever 
there is activity dominated by the purpose to produce, there 
we have a project of Type I.” 

“You don’t limit projects then to things made with 
hands?” 

“T most assuredly do not. Life is not so limited. Our 
educational outlook must be as broad as the whole of life. 
Wherever purpose can go there we find projects. yp, 

The next is Type II, the Consumer’s Project. Consumer's 
In this the purpose is to consume, to use In some LESSEN 

way, to use and enjoy. A small boy has the opportunity to 
see fireworks. His purpose makes his eyes follow the rockets 
high into the air, as he looks eagerly to see the bomb burst. 
The boy is, as regards production, merely passive; but he 
is very active in consuming, taking in, enjoying what some 
one else has produced. An artist paints a picture, a pro- 
ducer’s project. I and others come to see and enjoy, a con- 
sumer’s project.” 

“Do not some object to calling this a project?” 

“Ves they are basing their definition on something other 
than purpose. The question with me is simple: Is there a 
purpose dominating this boy as he faces the fireworks? 
And the answer clearly is ‘Yes.’ That there are educa- 
tional implications is clear as soon as we turn to literature 
or the appreciation of music or other works of art. If the 


348 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


learner has no purpose to take in and enjoy, there will be 
little learning, little if any growth in taste.”’ 

‘Did not some get the idea at the first that this second 
type was limited to what we ordinarily think of as esthetic 
appreciation? I notice you give enjoying fireworks as your 
example. This is hardly an esthetic pleasure.”’ 

‘“‘T am not sure that the enjoyment of fireworks is not 
esthetic; but I do think the wording in an early account of 
this topic was probably misleading on this point.” 

‘You said there are four types.” 

“Yes, shall we go on? Type III is the Problem Project, . 
where the purpose is to solve a problem, to clear up some 
Pursouetil intellectual difficulty. Historically and indi- 
problem vidually this is probably to be thought of as 
Bote an outgrowth of Type I. Almost any purpose 
to produce, especially if it be educative, will involve some 
difficulty which in turn will call for thinking. The difference 
then between Type III and Type I is that Type III consists 
wholly of the problem, while Type I typically involves fash- 
ioning, with the problematic thinking only incidental.” 

‘““Is every problem then a project?” 

‘‘No, I may recognize a problem without purposing to 
solve it. If so, that problem is no project for me. It be- 
comes a project to me only as I purpose to solve it and do 
pursue the purpose.” 

‘“‘Might some activity begin as a project, but the purpose 
die away and the activity so end as a mere task?” 

“Yes, if the purpose dies and the teacher still requires — 
the completion of what was begun, then it becomes a task.” 

‘‘This means that we cannot objectively apply the term 
‘project’ as a label—‘ Once a project always a project ’?” 

(ON O8.77 

“Tsn’t this a drawback? Doesn’t it vitiate your defini- 
tion?” 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 349 


‘No, it does not vitiate the definition. Nor do I think 
it a serious drawback. If I were more concerned with 
objective labeling than anything else, I might By uh ced) 
be troubled. But it so happens that I am attitude an 
more concerned with the learning of my pupils essential 
than I am with what you call objective label- aes 
ing. I wish then a term that points to what I conceive to 
be the essence of the learning process, the learning’s atti- 
tude.. When the purpose has gone, the learning process 
has much deteriorated. The excellence of the purpose 
definition is that it calls attention to this essential attitude 
on the part of the learner.” 

“Do not some overlook this in assigning problems?” 

“Indeed, yes. With young people it is only in slight 
degree that problems can be assigned. Assigned problems 
as a tule remain teacher’s problems; they do not thereby 
become pupil’s problems. Purpose cannot be assigned.” 

“Then any one who advocates extrinsic subject-matter 
is likely to leave purpose out of his project definition?” 

“Yes, I think so.” 

“Isn’t this just the difficulty with your project method, 
that it limits assignment?”’ 

“Ves both its difficulty and its excellency. Its excel- 
lency is that it looks facts in the face without eet: 
blinking. It tells you that in following the of purpose 
assignment plan, you lose the advantage of the limits 
pupil’s favorable attitude. It merely discloses ATTN 
difficulties that were there all the time. It doesn’t make 
the difficulties; it discloses them.” 

“Tt seems to me that you are ‘side-stepping’ now. I see 
what you mean. Purposeful activity is undoubtedly the 
best way to learn if only you have or can get a strong enough 
purpose in the child. But we cannot always get this, and 
when you tell us — as your project method does — to use 


350 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


only child purposes, then we do strike difficulties, because 
you are refusing to allow us to use other ways of dealing with 
children.” 

‘Did I ever tell you to use nothing but child purposes? 
Did I ever say you must not use other ways of dealing with 
children?”’ 

“That’s what I have understood. You have advocated 
purposeful activity and you have decried coercion and 
punishment. What else am I to understand?” 

‘Tam very glad you have brought this out, because I 
do not wish to be misunderstood and apparently I have 
been. What I have said I still say. Purposeful activ- 
ity furnishes better learning conditions than coercion — 
better for the primary learnings, better for associate and 
concomitant learnings. But I have never said you can get 
purposeful activity just by wishing it or by decreeing it. If 
you have the purpose working with you or if you can get it, 
then you will get better learning. If not, then you must 
do the best you can, taking everything into account.” 

“Then you are just holding up an ideal. You don’t ex- 
pect us to attain it? You are dealing with pious wishes?” 

‘No, that’s not what I mean.” 

‘But you admit that it is an ideal and cannot 
always be obtained?” 

“Yes, but let us look more closely before we speak of 
pious wishes. Consider health. It too is an ideal.” 

‘Yos: 

‘“‘And you don’t expect all people always to attain it?” 

‘No, there are difficulties that hinder. People are either 
ignorant or wilful or unfortunate. No one has perfect health 
all the time. Still less can all the people have it.”’ 

‘Do the difficulties mean that our advocacy of health is 
a mere pious wish, that we must not seek health? Suppose 
I am at the head of the city board of health, what shall 


How pursue 
ideals 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 351 


I do about the ideal of health and these difficulties you 
name? Suppose an actual epidemic is on. Many of the 
citizens are ignorant and prejudiced. My help- 

ers are too few. Some of them are ill-prepared penetra 
for the work at hand. What shall I do?” 

“You must do the best you can with the conditions as 
they are.” 

“T must seek my ideal even though I cannot attain it 
perfectly?” 

“Ves, by seeking you'll get more than if you don’t seek.” 

‘And the difficulties and hindrances, must I yield to them 
or shall I seek to lessen their power and influence?” 

“Clearly the latter, but you must not disregard them.” 

‘Then if I understand you, whenever I face an actual 
situation I must take as my beginning the facts as they are. 
In this sense ideals and hindrances all go in together to 
determine what I must do. I must no more overlook a 
difficulty than I overlook my ideal (my aim, my end).”’ 

‘Yes, I begin to see what you mean. Go on.” 

“But as I look to the future, ideal and difficulties must 
be treated differently. My ideal— my end and aim — I 
must, if it is feasible, preserve and hold entire. The diffi- 
culties I must seek to reduce and as far as possible get rid 
of altogether.” 

“Yes. Thatis the way of meeting any actual situation.” 

“So now with purposeful activity. It is my ideal for my 
pupils. I shall make it my end and aim. But my very 
devotion to my ideal must make me pay all certain aiti- 
necessary attention to the difficulties that stand culties to be 
between me and my ideal. I must know that Co 
pupils, as they now are (and in some measure as they always 
will be), will at times purpose hurtful and not helpful things. 
Textbooks oftentimes are not made for people with purposes 
but for the other kind. I must know that much if not most 


352 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


of the machinery of school promotions and the like are based 
on finishing set tasks. I must know that this machinery 
has been of slow growth, that superintendents, supervisors, 
teachers, pupils, boards of education, and parents are all 
accustomed to it and—to speak plainly — prejudiced 
largely in favor of maintaining it without much change.” 

“You make out a long list of difficulties. I wonder you 
are not discouraged before you begin.” 

‘The real list is much longer, yet I am not discouraged. 
My ideal is, I believe, founded on essential human nature. 
If so, then so long as it is disregarded there will be dissatis- 
faction and unhappiness; wherever it is used properly, 
satisfaction and happiness.”’ 

“But you have not told us what to do.” 

‘The answer is simple, though the road be hard and long. 
We must work toward the ideal whenever and wherever we 
can.” 

“You admit then that we must often compromise?” 

“Indeed, yes. It is the only way to be true to the ideal.” 


(a 5) e ° 
Daredine But can’t you make it plainer what to do. 


ideals I still don’t understand.” 
through — “Tl try. Imagine a scale. I think we used 
compromise 


it once before. It is arranged like this: 
At one end (1) is the complete basis of intrinsic subject- 
matter and purposeful activity; at the other (E) is the com- 


EK 





pletest kind of extrinsic subject-matter with assigned tasks 
and coercion, looking only to a distant future. We are to 
try, each in the place where he works, to live as high up 
towards I as our skill and the situation allow, and also try 
to carry the whole educational scheme in which we work 
further up toward I. But we are going meanwhile to ‘carry 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS © 393 


on,’ we are going to keep things going. This means that we 
shall, partly for lack of insight and skill on our part, partly 
by reason of outside conditions, have to live and act at times 
further down toward E than we like.”’ 

“Does this mean that if I have to teach a certain thing 
this term and it does not come purposefully — up toward I 
—then I am to move on down toward E and if need be 
assign it asa task?” 

“Yes, if it must be taught this term and there seems no 
other and better way of doing it.” 

“Then you lay all your ideals on the altar of expediency?” 

“That’s a rather unkind and I think misleading way of 
putting it. I recognize facts because I must, and I then use 
them in such way as to further my ideal. Sup- ree pitts 
pose I wish to be on the other side of a brick 
wall, I don’t ignore the wall or pretend that it is not there 
and walk ahead as if it were not there. If I did so act, I 
should never get on the other side. The wall won’t be treated 
that way. No, I recognize the facts, I look for a door or a 
scaling ladder. Recognizing what I can move and what I 
cannot, I adapt myself to the situation and so in some 
measure control it. But all the while I hold to the aim of 
getting on the other side of the wall.” 

“Won't you illustrate with school matters?” 

“Willingly. Suppose I have to give my pupils weekly 
grade marks. The regulations require it. Then I'll try to 
manage these marks so that they will do as little harm as 
possible. Instead of calling attention to them as if they were 
the be-all and end-all of school work, Ill try to distract 
attention from such extraneous incentives and fasten it on 
the inherent interests of the work itself.” 

‘‘Suppose the course of study fixes just what you have to 
teach and leaves you little or no time for anything else. 
What would you do?” 


354 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“That I admit is about as hard a situation as I could 
have to face. I did face it once for a year, and like young 
Sr Hannibal of old I then ‘swore eternal enmity’ 
with afixed to such a scheme —a vow, I may add, that I 
course of have kept. Usually I should advise one to 
sed leave such a system if possible. If, however, 
you cannot, then stay and accept facts as they are, but 
use all your power to change affairs. And work along a 
variety of lines. First, use all the leeway the situation 
allows you in dealing with your own class, and that’s more 
than you might at first thnk. Second, get as many people 
as you can in the system to study and learn about better 
things. Third, agitate — properly — for better regulations. 
If you are tactful and persistent, you may accomplish 
much.” 

‘‘T don’t see what leeway you could find to use under such 
conditions.” 

‘“‘Oh yes, there is much that could be done. Encourage 
thinking in your pupils. There is always some chance to 
think. Be on the lookout for problems lying within the 
course of study. Use such forall they are worth. Encourage 
some out-of-school projects. In matters of discipline utilize 
the pupils’ assistance as much as you possibly can. The 
case of pupils’ marching discussed some time ago [page 
54ff.| actually took place during that bad year. In certain 
more mechanical matters, the work might be arranged on an 
individualized basis.”’ 

‘By the individualized basis you refer to such work as 
we find in the Dalton and Winnetka plans. You approve 
them then?” 

‘‘Not on the whole or as inclusive schemes, 
but where we must regularly deliver fixed 
quotas of subject-matter we may well use certain of their 
devices to advantage. I did it twenty years ago. Under 


Individual- 
ized work 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 395 


such circumstances there is, I think, much about them to 
commend.” 

‘‘But you object to all fixed quota schemes, if I understand 
you?” 

‘‘On the whole, yes; and my objection is deeply rooted.” 

“Ts such individualized work given no place in your ideal 
scheme? I should think there would at times be distinct 
need for drill.” 

‘“‘T agree heartily that there is definite need for drill, and 
Type IV which we have not discussed contemplates it. This 
is sometimes called the Drill Project, though I Type IV 
prefer to call it the Specific Learning Project. 

In it the purpose is to acquire some item or degree of skill or 
knowledge.” 

“You mean, for example, to attain a certain speed and 
accuracy in column addition?’’ 

“Yes, that would illustrate it.” 

“Then I don’t see why you object to the Winnetka plan. 
That is exactly what I understand they do under this 
plan.”’ 

‘‘What I object to is having such drill in advance of the 
need for it and apart from a situation where it is felt to be 
needed, or at any rate apart from a recognition of the need. 
After pupils meet a situation calling for column addition 
and come to realize their need for drill in order to attain a 
desired standard of speed and accuracy, then I should say 
use it.” 

“And would you object to calling their attention to the 
standard norms in addition work say?” 

“By no means, provided I was satisfied the so-called 
standards represented proper work for my | i 
pupils at that time. You recognize that most Patios 
so-called norms merely represent existing prac- 
tice; that is, what can be got under present curricular and 


306 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


teaching conditions. Whether they should be accepted as 
standards is quite another matter.” 

“T don’t understand you. Do you mean to say that a 
norm worked out statistically from say 100,000 school 
children is not a standard? Iam surprised. I thought that 
such statistics proved it to be a standard and that it had to 
be accepted.” 

‘““You understand me correctly. I do not without special 
consideration accept such norms as standards. Don’t you 
see that your 100,000 children merely represent the results 
of present efforts at classroom teaching. But present efforts 
may be wrong. Possibly we should not put column addition 
where it now is taught. Counting thousands or even mil- 
lions of children doesn’t tell us whether it belongs where we 
have put it. It only tells us what we get when we do put it 
there. I do not say that all ‘norms’ are so got, but for any 
one to claim that the norms so got are binding standards 
would be ludicrous if it were not tragic.” 

‘You spoke as if Winnetka had only individualized study. 
Don’t they also have group work there?” 

‘““Yes, they do and, as far as I can learn, this group work 
is carried on excellently, with much of the spirit that we 
have here been advocating. I wish they could see their 
way clear to emphasizing more strongly the group-work 
side of learning and reducing the other to distinct sub- 
ordination to it.” 

“You think that some of their self-teaching and self- 
testing devices may be a permanent addition to educational 
practice?” 

‘“Yes; the idea may be, at any rate. But I should wish 
all such used, as was said above, only after the need had been 
felt. I fear, too, they ny to reduce more subject-matter to 
this basis than is wise.’ 

‘That brings up the idea of the separate school saben 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 357 


Shall we not have to give them up if the ideas of purpose- 
ful activity and intrinsic subject-matter be adopted?”’ 

‘‘As hitherto conceived and taught, yes; sep- Seneraite 
arate subjects for children would have to go.” school 

“T don’t see why. We shall forever need S“biects 
arithmetic, for example. Why not teach it openly and 
avowedly? Why slip about and pretend?” 

‘“You don’t understand me, I think. Arithmetic we shall 
always need and shall always teach and we shall teach it 
openly. The point is this. We learn better — certainly 
as a rule — when we face a situation calling for the use of 
the thing to be learned. Other things being equal then, we 
shall try to teach our arithmetic as it is needed; that is, in 
connection with situations of actual need. The effect of this 
will be to find arithmetic in many little pieces scattered along 
the path of life. These we shall teach as we meet them. As 
we accumulate in this way a store of arithmetic some of the 
pupils, particularly the more mathematically inclined, will 
from time to time put the pieces together and form wholes 
more or less complete. Later some will specialize in the 
subject.” 

‘“‘Ig this our discussion of psychological and logical over 
again?” 

Vest” 

“Do you think arithmetic learned in this haphazard way 
will be held in mind for use as well as if it were learned more 
systematically?” 

“Yes, I think so, though I don’t much like your term 
‘haphazard.’ I think that what is learned in a life situation 
has cues and feelers joined to it that promise best for its 
future use. I think that what is learned from a systematic 
course in a book is in danger of lacking these life connections 
and so it is in danger of lying idle in the mind when the 
occasion arises to use it.” 


308 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘“T have heard some say that the organization of experi- 
ence into subjects is an artificial affair and that in ignoring 
subject division lines we are just back to life experience. 
What do you think?” 

‘“‘T think it is true. No person ever finds arithmetic or 
geography or history by itself in life. It always comes 
embedded in a situation involving much more. It seems to 
me wiser to learn it as we find it thus embedded, for then 
we shall the better recognize it the next time we meet it in 
life. That’s what I meant by the ‘cues and feelers’ above.” 

‘‘But how are you going to get drill and system on any 
such basis?” 

‘‘T thought we had answered that before. We 
get the needed drill on any operation after we 
have met it and have seen the need for it. Our drill then 
can respect the ‘cues and feelers’ and so preserve its ‘natural 
setting’ connections. The child’s attitude toward it is almost 
surely better.’ 

‘‘But what about the systematic organization of subject- 
matter?” 

‘That too, we have answered. System should come after 
the separate parts have been met in their life connections. 

You will have to go back to some things that 
Systematic i s Sh 
organization Were said [page 297] on differentiation and 
ofsubject- integration of parts. Each person must make 
aia his own system if it is to be of service to him.” 

‘“‘It is in just such things as this that you and all who 
believe as you do seem to me to go wrong. You persist in 
thinking that the individual can ignore the race experience. 
You know very well he can’t, but you go on acting as if he 
could.” 

‘No, we don’t propose to ignore the race experience. On 
the contrary, I think the race has worked out better systems 
than any one of us is likely to make. And the race experience 


Drill 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 359 


envelops us all the while. Whoever talks, uses the race 
experience, or whoever uses a tool. Whoever uses such 
words as ‘whole number,’ ‘fraction,’ ‘decimal,’ is using the 
race-experience system. We cannot live in this world with- 
out learning and using what the race has worked out. But 
to take such things as they come, naturally, discuss them, 
see what they mean, use them, and so gradually build up 
each one himself for himself the system into which they fit 
—this is to give one a control over his thought system that 
no amount of memorizing other people’s formulations can 
give.” : 

“T still don’t quite see. Take geography. The scientific 
textbook writer can surely surpass your pupils in making a 
scientific system of geography. Why not use his system? 
Why throw it away?” 

‘“‘How do you mean to use his system?” 

“Tearn his book just as it is written.” 

‘That is what I hoped you would say. Don’t you know 
that most of that beautiful system fails to strike the pupil 
at all? The system that he brings from the textbook 1s still 
the one that he makes as he feels the need himself of sys- 
tematizing.”’ 

‘Wouldn’t you encourage the pupils to make actual 
systems?” 

“Indeed I should, and I should wish them to get sugges- 
tions from well made books, from any source in fact that 
would help.” 

‘‘Wouldn’t they merely borrow?” 

“Tf their effort at system making was merely formal, yes, 
they would. That’s what they now do, and I should then 
be just where the ordinary teacher is. But I should try to 
have them make a system only after the felt need for system 
had arisen. Then, if they borrowed, I’d hope they would 
not merely borrow but would borrow helpfully.” 


360 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


“Then you would wish your pupils in the end to organize 
their geography into a unifying system?” 

‘So far as such a system is helpful, yes. For mere formal 
examination purposes, no. I think as pupils get mentally 
older they will wish to bring together what they know in 
ordered form. I should naturally expect this tendency and 
encourage it.” 

‘“Would you use any textbooks in your school?” 

‘Again a difficult question. Many textbooks of the 
present day aim only at presenting children with 
pre-digested thinking. Such I should not use, 
or at any rate I should not use them as was intended by their 
authors.” 

‘But what kind would you use?” 

“Only time and fuller experimentation can tell. At 
present I can only prophesy, and you know what a bad 
business that is. I can see several different kinds possible. 
One kind would be simply a reading book, one that would 
tell in a fascinating way the story of history or geography 
or travel or adventure, or of insect life — all the other won- 
derful things that have come down to us. Another would be 
a compendium of ready reference or possibly a systematic 
treatise to be consulted as need might arise. Still another 
would be a book that raised questions, stimulated inquiries 
and activities. And still another one would contain self- 
directing and self-testing drill material.” 

‘“Where can we get such books?”’ 

‘“Most remain to be written perhaps, but a goodly be- 
ginning has been made if we know where to look.” 

‘Don’t you think that the classes in your school would 
have to be so small that the cost would be prohibitive?” 

‘“No, I don’t see it that way. Of course we don’t now 
spend a due proportion on our schools. People give lip 
service to education, but as a whole the country spends 


Textbooks 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 361 


more on its motor cars than on the education of its chil- 
dren. However, I see no good reason for supposing that 
very small classes are necessary or even desir- 
able. I think after we have sufficient experi- 
ence at it, this method, considering the service 
rendered, will take care of numbers quite comparably with 
other methods. Probably most city elementary classes are 
now too large. All such would have to be cut down.” 

“Tow about a course of study? It couldn’t be printed 
and given out in advance, could it?” 

‘‘Not as hitherto understood.” Fr aay 

‘What kind could we have?” 

“This is another one of our very difficult questions. I 
can only suggest a tentative program, a kind of compromise 
measure, if you wish. It might be something like this: 


Size of 
classes 


“1. A clear account of the theory, with emphasis on the new 
kind of aims. 


“2 A few specimen projects of various sorts worked out in de- 
tail to show the kind of thing to be expected and why, with 
a study of the correlative outcomes. 


“3 A list of suggestive projects much larger than could pos- 
sibly be used, with appropriate reference materials and 
suggestions for equipment. 


“4A Some account of outcomes reasonably to be expected, with 
emphasis on habits, attitudes, and appreciations, since 
these have too generally been overlooked — such outcomes 
not to be held up as immediate objectives but to help the 
teachers and pupils estimate their own progress. 


“5 Some self-teaching and self-testing drill material with state- 
ment of correlative desirable standards.” 


“You call this a compromise?”’ 
“Yes I should fear lest the formulated outcomes and 
drill procedures be wrongly used; but probably, at the first, 


362 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


public opinion would demand them. Then I should expect 
further experience to tell us better how to make out the 
course of study. I distrust my ability to prophesy.” 

‘““Wouldn’t there be great trouble in adjusting pupils who 
go from one school to another?”’ 

Reon ‘‘No, interestingly enough, our scheme would 
when pupils have less trouble at this point than the usual 
change plan. You see it is the precise specification of 
tert subject-matter quotas that give the trouble 
now. As soon as this lock-step is broken, adjustment is 
much easier. ‘Social age’ seems as good a single factor as 
any, possibly making special provision for the two extremes.” 

“You said earlier something about the new aims. I 
wish we might discuss the matter of objectives. It isn’t 
at all clear to me. You believe in knowledge 
and skills, you say, but you would add also 
habits, attitudes, ideals, and appreciations. These, then, 
would constitute your list of objectives as I understand it. 
Am I right?” 

“Yes and no. I am afraid of your way of stating it. 
For the purpose at hand I reckon three kinds of objectives: 
more immediate, more remote, and intermediate. Habits, 
skills, attitudes, knowledge, and other personal traits I am 
calling the intermediate objectives. If matters go well, they 
are not to be sought immediately. The immediate objective 
is to secure a good instance of present child life, gripping 
and sufficiently difficult to ‘lead on.’ The more remote is 
life too, succeeding life raised to a higher level because of 
the traits learned in the immediate experience.”’ 

“Tam lost entirely. How can you call an instance of 
present child life an objective? I thought an objective had 
to be something to be learned. Am I all wrong?’ 

‘So far from being all wrong, you have most of the prac- 
tice on your side, but I still hold to my statement, so I must 


Objectives 


—S a ee ee ne. a el a 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 363 


defend myself. What is an objective? In military terms 
it is typically a minor aim, a specific position the taking of 
which forms a part necessary to the attainment of a larger 
whole. So here, my first (immediate) objective is a gripping 
experience that promises to ‘lead on.’ I must get this in 
order to attain my further aims. Suppose I attam this 
objective, then my second (intermediate) objective is the 
acquisition through this experience of certain desirable 
traits, as knowledge, skill, habit, or attitude. These I must 
get in order to attain my still further aims (more remote 
objective) of a higher level of living. The intermediate 
traits have been satisfactorily got only as they eventuate in 
this higher living.” , 

“This seems to fit with the discussion of the ‘continuous 
remaking of life.’ ” 

“Yes, it is meant to fit exactly there.” 

“But I don’t yet quite understand. Do you first set up 
certain traits as items of knowledge or certain habits or 
skills that you wish and then hunt about for some experience 
that will teach them?”’ 

“No, that is exactly what I don’t do. That would give 
traits an immediacy of aim which I wish to deny. It’s life 
I wish to put first. So I seek first some fruitful ee periences 
experience. Having got that going, I seek to the immedi- 
direct it, if need be, so that the pupils will obiective 
grow from it and through it—so grow that they will 
henceforth live a richer life and have more control over 
the process.” 

“How do you decide which experience is to come 
next?”’ 

‘(On my theory we cannot decide in advance of the occa- 
sion for action — not helpfully asa rule.” 

‘‘On what bases do you decide when the time does come 


to act?” 


364 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘‘I value experiences according as they are (a) gripping; 
(b) sufficiently novel to involve before finished an extension 
HA te of present outlook and abilities, remaining, 
appraise however, within the range of success; (c) in 
expeHcncenshi! relation to preceding experiences, so varied as to 
keep life from being too one-sided. The experience that 
promises most under these heads I prefer.’’ 

‘And you expect to get desired traits from such experi- 
ences?”’ 

‘Yes, when one lives zestfully and successfully through a 
novel experience he will learn along many lines. These 
learnings when sorted out and properly labelled become what 
we are calling traits.” 

‘But what I don’t see is how you pick your experience 
to get desired traits; you seem to say that you seek the 
experience first and then take whatever traits follow, but 
surely you don’t mean that.” 

“That is exactly what I do mean. I do ask that the 
successive experiences be varied enough to take care of the 
different sides or aspects of life; but as a rule I consider 
traits only when the experience is under way and I am 
wishing the child to get the most possible from the expe- 
rience. Even then the trait may very well be rather my 
adult sophisticated way of looking at the matter. I may 
not mention any trait, as such, to the child. He is sup- 
posed to be concerned primarily with making a good job 
at the present affair and only secondarily concerned with 
learning.” 

“Your word ‘trait’ bothers me. What do you mean by 
1b??? 

“T mean by ‘trait’ any one learning outcome worth nam- 
ing,such as skill, habit, fact, knowledge, ideal, attitude, or 
appreciation. The word ‘trait’ is merely a general term to 
represent any one such learning outcome.”’ 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 365 


‘Do you have then no place for minimum essentials? I 
thought everybody had come to admit that there were 
certain traits, I suppose you would call them, ,,... 

j re te : ; Minimum 
that are essential to good living in society and essentials 
that these must be got. But you seem to deny 4s 10w 
ahi conceived 

“Tet me first ask you a question. Did you ever see 
included in any actual list of mimimum essentials such 
things as truthfulness and honesty or only certain abilities 
as reading, writing, spelling, and certain facts in history 
and geography?”’ 

‘“‘T had never thought about it before, but I believe only 
the latter. In fact, as I come to think about it, mmimum 
essentials are practically those things that a child must learn 
if he is to be promoted. I am sure I never saw truthfulness 
included, or honesty.” 

“Why not?” 

“T am not sure. I don’t know whether it is because we 
cannot compel a child to learn truthfulness. I mean we 
cannot assign it as we can spelling and make him practice 
it before us — drill him on it — till he gets it. Or whether 
it is because we think untruthfulness doesn’t prevent him 
from doing next year’s work.” 

_ “You think, then, minimum essentials refer perhaps to 
the things essential to our school machinery and its smooth 
running rather than to things essential to life?” 

“T don’t know. It looks that way.” 

“Do you think truthtelling less essential to life than 
certain words in the spelling list or certain common facts 
in history or geography?” 

‘No, I certainly don’t.”’ 

“Now I’ll answer your question about my attitude toward 
minimum essentials. I think there are certain things so 
useful for future progress in school and life, both immediate 


366 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


and more remote, that we should use compulsion if need 
be to get them, so important that if they are not got other- 


wise there would eventually come a time when 
Another 


notion of we should, if need be, drop practically every- 
Deen thing else and compel the learning of them. If 
essentials 


you wish to say these are minimum essentials I 
have no objection, provided I be allowed to have my own 
definition in mind when J use or accept the term.” 

‘Would you mind telling us some things you would include 
in this?” 

“By no means. Only I cannot give you a complete list. 
I think, in fact, it would differ with each child and the con- 
ditions surrounding him. My general list for all would cer- 
tainly be very much smaller than you are accustomed to 
think. Reading would be the main such essential, the 
ability to manage ordinary reading matter. Counting, 
making change, column addition should be included. These 
are not all, but the list would be short.” 

‘What would you do about honesty and truthtelling?” 

“There would be a long list of things which I should seek 
insistently as opportunity presented, but I would not in- 
clude them in the same list with these assignable 
things.”’ 

‘You don’t mean to stop your other list with 
_ those few things?”’ 

“No, but I wouldn’t include all the arithmetic or the 
‘facts’ that you are accustomed to see on such lists. This 
list I should keep short, so short in fact that only rarely 
would the teacher need to consult it.” 

“Are you not departing from your conception of the con- 
tinuous remaking of life when you admit even this short list 
of ‘minimum essentials’? ”’ 

“No, because I wish them as means to growth here and 
now, or as means to the present remaking of life. Without 


Other desir- - 
able traits 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 367 


them and their unique contribution the reconstruction of 
experience is sadly hampered. I must have them in order 
to attain my aim.”’ 

“Then why not start out at once and get them? ‘Even- 
tually, why not now?’ ”’ 

“Tf they can come intrinsically, all is better. If they can- 
not be so got, then I suffer a loss, but I can save something 
else by compelling these. All the while I am pursuing my 
aim.” 

“Would you mind telling your general aim of education?” 

“Tam glad todo so. My aim as I work with children is 
to have them live more richly and successfully aK 
right now in the belief that this will mean most preoeaias <5 
to them and to others both now and hereafter.” 

“Your word ‘successfully’ is an unusual one in this con- 
nection. What is successful living in the case of a child? It 
isa word I am more used to seeing applied to grown-ups.” 

“JT dare say you are right. But the question is a good one: 
What is successful living in the case of a child? What do 
you say? Is the present included or only the future?” 

“Both, I suppose. I should say that a child lives success- 
fully when he lives happily and makes others happy about 
him. That takes care of the present. As for the future ] 
should say that what he does now must be the kind that 
prepares also for the future.” 

“That sounds good. Do you notice that you have said 
in general terms what I said earlier about how to choose 
among activities? If an activity is gripping and is carried 
out successfully the present will, as a rule, be happy. If it 
requires more than present outlook and achieved abilities 
and in comparison with preceding activities is sufficiently 
varied, it will prepare for the future.” 

“You wish then to get both present and future together 
in one statement?” 


368 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


‘tO ea 

“But do you mean that a child should never look ahead. 
How about planning for a fishing trip? Or an older boy’s 
trying to choose his life work?” 

‘IT wish especially to encourage planning 
ahead. In fact every plan to make or do any- 
thing is a look ahead. The more mature the child, the further 
ahead he can and will look. As the boy gets up toward 
manhood the choice of a profession may be a most gripping 
project.” 

‘“Didn’t we discuss this under the head of the growing 
interest span?” 

‘Yes [pages 183 ff.], it is eile the same.’ 

‘Tn trying to get present life and future into one statement 
are you trying to care for what we called ‘the continuous 
remaking of life’?”’ 

‘‘Exactly so.” 

“Tf you were going to introduce these ideas into a school 
system where they had not been tried, what would you do?” 

“First of all, I don’t believe in forcing them 

ras rete in. That isn’t the kindly way to do anything, 

and it seldom succeeds. If I were a superintend- 

ent or supervisor, I should take note of the teachers already 

working most nearly along these lines and encourage them 

Matourave to do even more. Then I should get other 

those already teachers somewhat interested to visit these and 

auticas try some of the things they saw. I should 

encourage all to study the theory underlying, with the hope 
of building a general interest in it.”’ 

“Do you think you would get far if you had hard and fast 
Relax sub-  ‘Subject-matter requirements?” 
ject-matter ‘““No, these would have to be relaxed. To 
requirements some quite capable teachers I should give a 
very free rein and study the results. In meetings with the 


The child’s 
look ahead 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 569 


teachers I should stress the finer and subtler outcomes and 
try to remove some of the felt strain to get the more 
mechanical and accordingly the measurable outcomes.” 

‘‘ Are there no specific things a teacher might do?”’ 

“Yes, there are three specific lines to follow. One is to 
make over gradually the ordinary class work — we discussed 
this once before — looking out for every chance to base the 
work on problems.”’ 

“You say ‘gradually.’ Are you afraid you might go too 
fast.” 

“Yes, and properly so. This idea has its technique and 
it is different from the old way. No teacher can shift sud- 
denly. Besides a failure that results from going too fast 
does more harm than any other kind.” 

‘What else? You said there were three diac 
lines of advance?” | 

“Another is to get permission to set aside a half hour or 
an hour as a ‘free-work’ period. Tell the pupils they may 
take the time for any worthwhile activity, but 
each must first get your permission for his bhi 
project. At first most can’t think of anything 
worthwhile. They are not used to thinking constructively, 
you see. So you must say: ‘If you can’t think of anything, 
I can’; and then you must have ready some good sugges- 
tions.”’ 

‘What’s the special advantage of this period ?”’ 

“Tt serves several purposes. It gives the teacher a chance 
to try out the plan on a small scale. Teacher and pupils 
both will have to learn. Again it will serve as a seed bed for 
suggestions to be used in other school periods. If the teacher 
is successful, projects soon will be undertaken which require 
more time. They can then run over to English or history 
or science according to where they most belong. T'inally 
after a short period succeeds it can be extended gradually 


370 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


to cover as much of the week as it seems wise to run on 
this plan.”’ 

‘“You again speak cautiously.”’ 

‘“Yes, we live in the world with a great many other people, 
most of whom are thoroughly committed to the old way. 
This must go slowly. Besides there must be much experi- 
menting before we know how to care for everything on the 
new basis.” 

‘““You said there were three lines of advance. We’ve had 
two.” 

“Yes, the third is extra-curricular activity. We can use 
this to distinct advantage. Perhaps eventually the line 
Extra- between curriculum and extra-curricular ac- 
curricular tivity will shift. Surely it must become less 
ea k ae definite than now.” 

‘““Do you honestly, deep down in your heart, expect this 
new idea to supplant the old? Do you think it can really 
be made to work?” 

‘Indeed, I do. It is coming. There’s hardly a school 
in this country that is not moving in this direction. The 
distance moved in a generation is great; and the better 
the school and the more in touch with modern thought, 
the greater on the whole has the movement been.” 

‘““What are you most afraid of?” 

‘That we shall move too fast.” 

‘Fear you'll move too fast! I don’t under- 
stand.” 

“T fear the why of it all will not be sufficiently understood 
or the how of it sufficiently worked out before people are 
boasting that they have it. In other words I fear it will be 
made a fad.” 

‘The faddists will be among the professed friends of the 
movement. What can the avowed foes do that will most 
retard it?” 


What to fear 


SOME CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 371 


“Hold to the old-fashioned fixed quotas of subject-matter. 
Continue to measure success in terms of it. Insist on hold- 
ing to this while they pretend to allow freedom to experi- 
ment.” 

“You think that extrinsic subject-matter is the crux on 
which the new and old positions turn?’’ 

“Yes. Intrinsic subject-matter and purpose- 
ful activity with education as the continuous 
remaking of life to ever higher levels — these three pretty 
well constitute the new position.” 

‘“Are you not sorry that we’ve reached the end?”’ 

‘“‘Reached the end? Wehaven’t reached theend. There’s 
plenty more. We have merely stopped. It is the term that 
has ended.” 


The crux of 
the matter 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


‘“‘Dangers and Difficulties of the Project Method: A Symposium,” 
Teachers College Record, 22 : 283-321 (September, 1921). 


LIST OF REFERENCES 


BOOKS 


ALEXANDER, THomas. Prussian Elementary Schools. Mac- 
millan. New York, 1918. 

Bonser, F. G. The Elementary School Curriculum. Macmillan. 
New York, 1920. 

Cuarters, W. W. Curriculum Construction. Macmillan. New 
York, 1923. 

Cones, ELLswortu. An Experiment with a Project Curriculum. 
Macmillan. New York, 1923. | 

CUBBERLEY, E. P. Changing Conceptions of Education. Hough- 
ton Mifflin. Boston, 1909. 

Dewey, Joun. The Child and the Curriculum. University of 
Chicago Press. Chicago, 1902. 

Dewey, Joun. Democracy and Education, Macmillan. New 
York, 1916. 

Dewey, Joun. The Educational Situation, University of 
Chicago Press. Chicago, 1906. 

Dewey, Joun. How We Think. Heath. New York, 1910. 

Dewey, Jonn. Interest and Effort in Education. Houghton 
Mifflin. Boston, 1913. 

Dewey, Joun. Moral Principles in Education. Houghton 
Miffin. Boston, 1909. 

Dewey, Joun. School and Society. University of Chicago Press. 
Chicago, 1915. 

Gates, Artuur I. Psychology for Students of Education. Mac- 
millan. New York, 1923. . 

JAMES, WILLIAM. Principles of Psychology. Holt. New York, 
1890. 

James, WinuiaM. Talks to Teachers. Holt. New York, 1899. 

Kanovgt, I. L., (editor). Twenty-Five Years of American Educa- 


tion. Macmillan. New York, 1924, 
373 


374 FOUNDATIONS OF METHOD 


Kinvpatrick, W. H. The Project Method (pamphlet). Teachers 
College, New York, 1918. 

Kiuparrick, W. H. Source Book in the Philosophy of Education. 
Macmillan. New York, 1923. 

Merriam, J. L. Child Infe and the Curriculum. World Book 
Company. Yonkers-on-Hudson, 1920. 

STEVENSON, J. A. The Project Method of Teaching. Macmillan. 
New York, 1921. 

THORNDIKE, Hi. L. Education. Macmillan. New York, 1912. 

THORNDIKE, HK. L. Educational Psychology. Teachers College. 
New York, 1913-14. 

Tuornpixe, E. L. Educational Psychology, Briefer Course. 
Teachers College. New York, 1914. 

THORNDIKE, EH. L. Principles of Teaching. Seiler. New York, 
1911. 

WoopworrtH, R.S. Dynamic Psychology. Columbia University 
Press. New York, 1918. 

WoopwortnH, R.8. Psychology. Holt. New York, 1921. 


PERIODICALS 


Journal of Educational Method. World Book Company. Yonkers- 
on-Hudson. 

Journal of Philosophy. Journal of Philosophy. New York. 

Teachers College Record. Teachers College, New York. 


INDEX 


Absent-mindedness, 113. 

Aims, in education, 187, 191-92, Zot, 
362-67; in moral education, 312- 
13, 314-15, 325; immediate ob- 
jectives, 362-64; intermediate 
objectives, 362, 364; remoter ob- 
jectives, 362; minimum essentials, 
365; child’s look ahead, 368. 

Alexander, Thomas, quoted, 125- 
26. 

Annoyance, not same as pain, 32. 
See also Effect, Law of; Regret. 

Appreciation, significance of, 135, 
197; how built, 129; cannot be 
assigned, 101, 119, 129, 288; 
cannot be compelled, 194. See 
also Attendant learnings; Atti- 
tudes; Concomitants. 


Arithmetic, teaching of, referred to, | 


356-58. 

Architecture, influence of, 122-23. 

Assignability, 101-2, 129, 287-88. 

Associate suggestions, defined, 102; 
value of, 104; how got, 129; how 
treated, 104-5, 106; follow readi- 
ness, 133; marginal responses, 
113. See also Attendant learn- 
ings. 

Association. See Associative Shift. 

Associative Shift, discussed, 38-41, 
179-80; varies with age, 335; in 
moral education, 334-36; prizes 
and rewards, 336-37. 

Athenian method, 109. 

Attendant learnings, discriminated 
and defined, 102-3; influenced by 
readiness, 132; place of, on coer- 
cion-interest scale, 167-68; in- 
fluence of, on character, 311. See 
also Associate suggestions; Con- 
comitants; Primary learning. 

Attitudes, how built, 63, 71, 105— 
6, 119, 120-35; importance of, 


99-100, 101, 123, 135, 197, 343; 
non-assignable, 101; effect of co- 
ercion, 89-91; not vet measured, 
107 ; give character to an act, 321, 
327. See also Attendant learn- 
ings; Aversion; Concomitants. 

ae 85, 87, 89-90, 97-98, 118, 

28. 


Behavior, defined, 277; outer, not 
sufficient, 323. See also Ways- 
of-behaving; Conduct. 

Behavior-pattern, 280. See also 
Ways-of-behaving. 

Bonds. See Connection. 

Broad problem of method. See 
Wider problem of method. 


Can, 190, 197-99, 268. 

Character, analysis of, 337-39; how 
built, 318-25; always being built, 
108; strength of, 153-54; charac- 
ter-conduct series, 313, 325; habit 
and character, 319, 325; habit vs. 
thought, 336-37; integration of, 
321; in relation to attitudes, 100, 
311, 321, 327; influence of ritual 
on, etc., 124. See also Moral 
education; Selfishness. 

Charters, W. W., referred to, 203. 

Child, essentially active, 150-51; 
child vs. teacher activity, 206-12, 
212-14, 247; child vs. subject- 
matter, 273; controlling children, 
317-19; frontier vs. modern, 254— 
62; childhood a waste period, 283. 

Choosing, how valuable, 152-54, 
208, 210-11; internal vs. external 
choices, 161-64, 316; continuity 
in, 165; accepting a situation, 
165-66; varies with age, 183-84, 
185, 201. See also Purpose. 

Citizenship, characteristics de- 
manded, 126-27, 129; teaching 


375 


376 


of, 310, 322; relation of method 
to, 109 ff., 290. 

Civics, referred to, 310. 

Civilization, why changing, 251; 
rapid change of, 264; demands 
correlative education, 109-10, 
265-67; relation of institutions 
WoL 

Coercion, defined, 76-79, 258; ef- 
fect of, on learning, 76-87, 89- 
98, 167-68; uses of, 85, 90, 98, 
168, 333-34, 350; effect of, on 
concomitants, 87, 91, 167-68, 
194; in moral education, 95-96, 
327-28, 333-34; by one’s fellows, 
331-382; coercion and will, 175; 
the coercion-interest scale, 167, 
258. See also Aversion. 

Collings, Elsworth, referred to, 
286-87. 

Common good, building interests 
in, 130-31. 

Complete Act, defined, 214, 216; 
group acts, 215. 

Complete Act of Thought, defined, 
234, 248; discussed, 233-50; 
influence of, 241; steps in, 236- 
40, 242-43, 243-45; examining 
the situation in, 236, 238, 242, 
243, 244, 248; arising of sugges- 
tions in, 236-37, 238, 242, 244, 
248; elaborating implications in, 
237, 238, 242, 245, 248; testing 
hypotheses in, 237-38, 243, 245, 
248 ; steps not necessarily chrono- 
logical in, 239, 248; steps taken 
by another in, 247; what proof 
is, 241. See also Problem. 

Concept. See Idea. 

Concomitants, defined, 102-3, 133; 
value of, 104, 311; how sought, 
105-6; how built, 117-19, 129, 
133-34, 202; marginal responses, 
111, 133; follow readiness, 133- 
34; coercion and concomitants, 
87; from intrinsic learning, 287. 
See also Attitudes; Ideals; Ap- 
preciations. 

Conditioned reflex. 
tive Shift. 


See Associa- 


INDEX 


Conduct, as broad as life, 77; char- 
acter-conduct series, 313-14, 325; 
the immediate aim of moral edu- 
cation, 314, 325; two kinds of 
control over, 316, 328-29. See 
also Behavior; Life. 

Connection (or bond), defined, 22; 
innate, 23, 29; modifiable, 29; 
strengthening or weakening, 29. 
See also Learning; Laws of learn- 
ing. 

Consciousness, place of, in learning, 
70-71; in building attitudes, 
106; in building ideas, 299— 
300; conscious choice, 183-84; 
habit and thought in moral 
character, 336-37. See also 
Thinking. 

Continuity, discussed, 164, 167. 

Control. See Experience. 

Controversial questions, how treat- 
ed, 252-53. 

Course of study, binds teacher, 214; 
in régime of purposeful activity, 
353-59, 361. 

Critical-mindedness, desirable, 127; 
how built, 180. See also Citizen- 
ship. 

Curriculum, why changing, 251-71; 
varying with needs, 263; content 
criticized, 276-77 ; old conception 
of, 283; effect of extrinsic sub- 
ject-matter on, 287-88; to be 
composed of experiences, 310; in- 
fluence of interest on, 148-49; 
changed by psychological order, 
308-9 ; three R’s not sufficient in, 
269-71; introduction of manual 
activities into, 260. See also 
Subjects, school. 


Dalton plan, referred to, 354. 

Definitions, use of, to be mistrusted, 
309. 

Deliberation, for action, 186; in 
morals, 336-37, 338. See also 
Complete Act of Thought. 

Democracy, influence of, on educa- 
tion, 270. See also Democratic 
method; Democracy. 


INDEX 


Democratic method, 5, 12, 109-10, 
125-27, 270. 

Dewey, John, referred to, 149, 160, 
170, 183, 184, 191, 233, 236, 239, 
273, 294. 

Difficulties, how helpful, 63, 71-72, 
73, 93, 146, 153; in relation to 
ideals, 350—53 ; occasion, not cause, 
of thinking, 236; in case of 
coercion, 83. 

Disagreeable, facing the, 145-46. 
See also Coercion; Interest. 

Discipline, discussed, 146, 149-50; 
“pin-drop”’ order, 323. 

Disuse, Lawof. See Exercise, Law 


of. 
Divided self, 170-71, 179, 311. 
See also Self. 
Dressmaking, instance of, 66 ff. 
Drill, intrinsic use of, 355, 358. 
Duty, sense of, in moral education, 
342-43; sense of, must be built, 
342. 


Education, defined, 191-92, 223, 
257, 277-78, 292; as reconstruc- 
tion of experience, 191-92, 197- 
98, 257, 277-78, 292, 367-68; 
not mere preparation, 191, 277— 
78, 283, 367; aims changing, 221- 
23; why changing, 251-71 (Chap- 
ter XVI); as here advocated, 
370; based on experience, 221- 
23, 257; when experience is edu- 
cative, 196-98; utilizes meanings, 
221; sharing experiences, 257; 
frontier education, 254-60; 
preparation for change, 265- 
67; is life, 2838; science of, 
270. See also Growing; Life; 
Experience; Educative process; 
Aims. 

Educative process, analyzed into 
steps, 280-81; old conception of, 
283-84; factors in, 272; unifica- 
tion of factors in, 274-75. 

Effect, Law of, discussed, 32; im- 
portance of, 41-42; illustrated, 
33-34, 48-49, 69-70, 97; in co- 
ercion, 76-87 ; in punishment, 32; 


377 


in moral conduct, 328, 329. See 
also Aversion; Coercion. 

Effort, discussed, 143-45, 149; 
value of, 159; related to interest, 
149, 158-59; relation to happi- 
ness, 144. 

End, function of, 72, 73; in coer- 
-cion, 82. 

Enterprise. See Project; Purpose- 
ful activity. 

Examinations, effect of, 214-15. 

Executing. See Steps (in purpose- 
ful act). 

Exercise, Law of, stated, 33-34; 
shown in diagram, 49; factor of 
intensity in, 34; disuse in, 35, 49; 
recency in, 35. 

Experience, content of, 187, 191; 
control over, 187, 191, 197, 198; 
when educative, 196-98; in rela- 
tion to meanings, 219-23; basis 
of learning, 304—5, 340; common 
denominator of child and subject- 
matter, 274-75; reconstruction 
of, 190-92, 197-98, 257, 277-78, 
281-82, 292; unit element of cur- 
riculum, 310; race experience, 
222, 304-5; vicarious experience, 
222-23, 340; experiences the im- 
mediate objective, 362-64; com- 
parative values among experi- 
ences, 363-64; “‘experience”’ and 
“result,” 295-96. See also Life, 

Extrinsic subject-matter. SeeSub- 
ject-matter. 


Fads, 269, 271, 345, 370. 

Fatigue, influenced by interest, 
136-37. 

Fears, origin of, 39-40. 

Focus of attention, defined and dis- 
cussed, 110-12, 120. 

Freedom, why desired and how 
much, 209-12. 

Freud, referred to, 172. 


Galileo, referred to, 20-21. 

General science, referred to, 310. 

General terms, to be used sarefully, 
020, 


378 


Generalization, referred to, 95; how 
built, 131, 323-24. 

Geography, teaching of, referred to, 
310, 358, 360. 

Grammar, teaching of, referred to, 
309, 310. 

Growing, two senses of, 188-89; the 
end of education, 187, 209; con- 
ditions of, 132, 142 , 149-50, 159, 

257; content of, 185-89; learning 
and. erowing, 188- 89, 198; lines 
of, 197-98, 257; a factor in inter- 
est, 92; is test of freedom, 209- 
10. See also Experience; Life. 

Guidance, 159, 213, 343. See also 
Teacher. 


Habit, value of, 71, 343; how built, 
320: in relation to character, 319, 
325, 336-37; habit and thought 
in character, 336-37. See also 
Learning. 

Happiness, relation of effort to, 144. 

Herbartian steps, 241. 

Hindrance. See Difficulties. 

History, teaching of, 310, 358. 

Home, in frontier days, 254-62; 
now yielding to school, 259-62, 
270. 

Honors. See Prizes. 

Idea: ideas and meanings, 221; how 
built, 294-95, 296-300; 339-40: 
varying content, 339; differentia- 
tion and integration of parts, 
297-98, 305-6; simple and com- 
plex, 298-99. ’ See also Meaning; 
Thinking. 

Ideals, importance of, 123; how 
built, 105-6, 119, 129: - pursuit of, 
350-53. See also Concomitants. 

Icentives, discussed, 177, 181; 
intrinsic vs. extrinsic, 177-79, 
195, 316; marks and prizes, 180: 
natural, 180. 

Individual, in relation to society, 
316-17. See also Self; Personal- 
ity. 

Individualized instruction, Dalton 
plan, 354; Winnetka plan, 304-56, 


INDEX 


Indulgence, defined, 142, 159. 

Industrial order, effect of, 251-71 
(Chapter XVID. 

Initiative, 211. 

Institutions, in relation to society, 
31 

Intelligence, growth in, 185. 

Interest, defined, 30-31, 93-94, 
140, 158-59; relation of, ‘to mind- 
set, 30-31, Ghee 138, 141, 149; 
how built, 90-93, 117-19, 121 ff., 
129, 155-58, 179: centers of in- 
terest, 116-173 119, 121; the doc- 
trine of interest, 139-40, 153-54, 
159; degrees of interest, 140, 166: 
wrong kind of interest, 140, 141: 
interest and effort, 31, 143-45, 
149, 158-59, 168; coercion and 
interest building, 90-92, 194; 
criteria for judging, 141-42, 159: 
effect on learning, 139, 141, 
166-67, 193-94, 246; making 
. things interesting, 147-48, 179, 
sugar coating, 149, 179; soft 
pedagogy, 149; facing the dis- 
agreeable, 145-56; interest and 
activity, 150-51: "effect of, on 
fatigue, 136-387, 168: interest and 
discipline, 146; value of, 159; an 
adverse view of, 136; sole begin- 
ning point, 157; extends itself, 
155-58; direct DS. indirect in- 
terest, 157-58, 169, 190-91, 195; 
interest and curriculum, 148-49: 
in relation to self, 160-81; iden- 
tification of the self, 161: coer- 
cion-interest scale, 167: extrane- 
ous _ interest, 168-69: Wood- 
worth’s opinion, 168; ; warring in- 
terests, 174; intellectual interest, 
187, 198: virtues as moral inter- 
ests, 94-95, 311, 335. See also 
Effort; Self: Interest span; In- 
terest range. 

Interest range, defined, 192-93; 
use of, 192-97, 198; how enlarged, 
193-97. 

Interest span, defined, 180-83; dis- 
cussed, 182-99 (Chapter XI); 
increases with age, 182-83, 198; 


INDEX 


increase of choice, 183-84, 198; 
new interests, 186-87. 

Intrinsic subject-matter. See Sub- 
ject-matter. 


James, William, referred to, 110, 
170. 

Judging. See Steps (in purposeful 
act). 


Knee jerk, 23, 44, 4546. 


Lacing shoes, incident of, 279-81. 

Laws of learning, defined, 21; mean- 
ing of scientific law, 20-21; use 
of, illustrated, 56 ff., 61-62. See 
also Learning; Effect, Law of; 
Exercise, Law of; Associative 
Shift; Set; Readiness, Law of. 

Learning, defined psychologically, 
23-24, 29, 47-51; defined for life, 
189-90, 197-99, 209, 268, 277, 
280, 282, 292, 308; how it takes 
place, 19-42 (Chapter IT); as 
based on nervous system, 43-53 
(Chapter ITI); simpler instances 
of, 54-65 (Chapter IV); mind- 
set and learning, 66-75 (Chapter 
V); coercion and learning, 76-98 
(Chapters VI-VII); purpose and 
learning, 69-70, 74-75, 201-3; 
effect of interest on, 30-31, 139, 
141, 166-67, 198-94, 246; effect 
of consciousness on, 70-71, 106, 
299-300 ; effect of difficulty on, 63, 
71-72, 73, 93, 146, 153; learning 
and .growing, 188-89; intrinsic 
vs. extrinsic learning, 284-85; 
logical order of learning, 305-6. 
See also Laws of learning; Psy- 
chological and logical. 

Letter writing, an instance of, 61- 


62. 

Life: the good life, 187; reconstruc- 
tion of, 190-92, 197-98, 257, 277- 
78, 292, 367-68; frontier vs. mod- 
ern, 254-68; relation to educative 
process, 282. See also Growing; 
Experience. 

Lincoln, Abraham, education of, 
254-55. 


379 


Literature, teaching of, 193-95, 197. 
Logical. See Psychological and 
logical. 


ee activities, why introduced, 

260. 

Margin of attention (marginal re- 
sponses), defined, 110-11; mar- 
ginal stimulations, 111-13, 120— 
34; range of stimulations, 120- 
21; the foundation of method, 
116-19, 120-34; influence of 
readiness, 1383; influence of pur- 
poseful activity, 131-85; in 
relation to morality, 113-14; 
influence of national glory, 
124 ff. See also Attendant learn- 


ings. 

Marks, use of, 180. 

Mathematics, boy solving a difficult 
problem in, 72-73. 

Maturity, growth in, 184-85, 198. 

Meaning, defined, 217-18, 280; 
comes from experience, 219, 221, 
223; where resides, 219; use of, 
220-21; related to thinking, 223- 
24, 230. 

Measurability, influence of, 107-8. 
See also Tests and measures. 

Memory, discussed, 49-50, 70-71, 
73-74; for pleasant things, 35- 
36; reliance on memorizing, 148, 
283-84, 306-7. 

Method, defined, 3, 6-7, 13, 116 ff., 
344-45; contrasted with subject- 
matter, 5-7, 18, 127; how method 
acts, 9, 10-12, 109-10, 131; based 
on marginal responses, 116 ff., 
135 ff.; why changing, 252, 269, 
271; not properly a device, 345— 
46; effect on morals, 311; as re- 
lated to civilizations, 109-10; in 
relation to philosophy, 17-18; 
scientific study of, 3, 5, 17-18; 
“methods”? and devices, 2; al- 
phabet method, 2, 4. See alse 
Wider problem of method; Nar-« 
row problem of method. 

Mind-set-to-an-end. Sce Set (mind- 
set). 


380 


Minimum essentials, as now con- 
ceived, 365; in extrinsic régime, 
366. 

Moral education, discussed, 311-26, 
327-43 (Chapters XIX-—XX); 
pervades all education, 311, 
325; aims in, 312-18, 314, 325; 
requires no special psychology, 
312; method in, 311; analy- 
sis of moral character, 337-39; 
intelligent moralization, 267-68; 
moral sensitivity, 113-14, 337- 
38; building moral ideas, 339; 
building moral responses, 340- 
41; virtues as moral interests, 
94-95, 311, 335; character-con- 
duct series, 3138-14, 325; two 
ways of controlling, 316, 317-19, 
328-29; how character is built, 
318-25; practice of characteris- 
tics, 318-20, 325, 330; discrim- 
inative practice, 330; essence of 
moral conduct, 320-21; insist- 
ence on attitudes, 321, 323, 325- 
26; practicing responsibility, 323; 
danger in generalizations, 323- 
24; building unselfishness, 323- 
24; varies with age, 324-25; in 
relation to parents’ comfort, 315- 
19, 325; parents’ control indirect, 
327-28, 329-30; value of group 
enterprises, 331-33; value of con- 
scious consideration, 332-33; 
habit vs. thought in, 336-37; or- 
dinary schoolroom not well 
adapted to, 341; zestful living the 
main reliance, 331-43; punish- 
ment of minor importance, 331; 
use of books and pictures, 340; 
duty in, 341-42; direct moral in- 
struction, 342-44; facing the dis- 
agreeable, 145-46; will training, 
176-77; under extrinsic régime, 
289-90, 292. See also Morals; 
Punishment; Spoiling. 

Morale, how built, 154-55. 

Morals, defined, 320-21, 330. 

Morgan, Lloyd, referred to, 110. 

Multiple response, 47-48. 


INDEX 


Narrow problem of method, defined : 
4—5, 10-13; narrow vs. wider, 4 ff. 
See also Method; Wider problem 
of method. 

Natural setting, 202-3. 

Neurone, referred to, 28, 43; dis- 
cussed, 45 ff.; motor and sensory 
neurones, 46; central neurone, 
45, 46; dendrite, 45; axon, 45; 
branching neurone, 48, 49. 

Newton, Sir Isaae, referred to, 20. 

Norms, criticized, 355-56. 


Objectives. See Aims. 

Open-mindedness, discussed, 114- 
15, 127; how built, 130. 

Opposition opinions: to the study of 
psychology, 19, 20; to considering 
marginal opinions, 122; on spoil- 
ing, 150, 155, 315; on interest, 
ne 137, 150, 155; on coercion, 
175} 

Organization of thought, how built, 
68, 105, 202-3, 243-46, 249, 358- 
59; influenced by purpose, 68, 
co 246; a factor in willing, 
175: 

Outlook and insight, growth in, 197. 

Out-of-school learning, analyzed, 
279-80; discussed, 291. 

Overcoming, value of, 146. 


Pawlow’s dog, 39, 334. 

Persistence, how increased, 114—15. 

Personality, discussed, 56, 58-59, 
169-70; growth in, 281-82. See 
also Self. 

nape ri in relation to method, 
17-18. 

Physics, teaching of, discussed, 
308-9. 

Piano playing, under coercion, 85, 
86, 89-91. 

Pictures, influence of, 122. 

Planning. See Steps (in purpose- 
ful act). 

Plato, referred to, 172. 

Primary learning, defined, 102; 
value of, 104, 106-7. See also 
Attendant learnings; Learning. 


/ 


INDEX 


Prizes, effect of, 180, 335-36. 

Problem: problem method, 241, 247, 
249; utilizes laws of learning, 63- 
64; guides thought, 243-45 ;organ- 
izes thought, 243-45; group prob- 
lems, 247; child’s vs. teacher’s, 
246-47, 349; the problem pro- 
ject, 348. See also Complete 
Act of Thought; Purposeful 
activity. 

Project, defined, 344, 347; project 
method, 241, 345-46; four types 
of projects, 346-48, 355; the pro- 
ducer’s project, 347; the con- 
sumer’s project, 347-48; problem 
project, 348; specific learning 
project, 355; incompatible with 
extrinsic teaching, 349; limits as- 
signment, 349; projects and a 
course of study, 354-59, 361; dif- 
ficulties in using, 351-53; indi- 
vidualized work, 354-55. See 
also Purposefulactivity ; Purpose; 
Problem. 

Prussian methods, 4, 12, 109-10, 
125-26. : 

Psychological and logical, defined, 
294, 301-2; discussed, 294-310 
(Chapter XVIII); succession of 
“experience’’ and ‘‘result,’’ 295- 
96; building ideas, 294-300, 339- 
40; logicals, 299-301; psycholog- 
icals,302; logical order, 304, 306- 
7, 309; psychological order, 304— 
9, 310, 357; psychologizing sub- 
ject-matter, 309. See also Edu- 
cative process; Purposeful activ- 
ity. 

Public opinion, action of, 59. 

Punctuation, discussed, 227, 229, 
231. 

Punishment: Law of Effect at work, 
32; at differing ages, 40-41; as- 
sociative shift, 40-41, 334; when 
used, 58, 96-97, 330; not always 
good, 58, 350. 

Purpose, as related to mind-set, 52, 
201; purpose and learning, 66-75 
(Chapter V), 68-69, 74-75, 201- 
3; why desired, 74, 201-3, 215; 


381 


varies with age, 129; related to 
natural setting, 203; pupil vs. 
teacher, 206-12; two meanings 
of, 207; cannot be assigned, 349; 
individual purpose, not sov- 
ereign, 350. See also Set; Pur- 
poseful activity; Learning. 

Purposeful activity, defined, 200; 
discussed, 200-16 (Chapter X IIT); 
influence of, on learning, 71-75, 
129; influence of, on marginal 
responses, 131-35; not merely 
manual, 200, 215; steps in, 203-6, 
215; four types of, 346-8, 355; 
the complete act, 214-16; why 
more needed now, 269; not com- 
patible with assignment, 349-50; 
incompatible with differentiated 
school subjects, 357-58; place of 
drill in, 355, 358; organization of 
subject-matter in, 358-59; text- 
books for, 360; size of classes in, 
360-61; course of study in, 361; 
adjustment of pupils in changing 
schools in relation to, 362; how 
to introduce, 361-70; what to 
fear in relation to, 870-71. See 
also Project; Purpose; Steps (in 
purposeful act); Set. 


Reaction time, 44-45, 46-47. 

Readiness, Law of, stated, 21, 28; 
discussed, 28; influence on learn- 
ing, 69-70. See also Readiness, 
factor of. 

Readiness, factor of, stated, 24-25, 
27; set and readiness, 25-26, 66, 
73; selective readiness, 31, 201; 
influence on attendant learnings, 
132-33; in interest, 139, 181. 
See also Readiness, Law of. 

Recency, 35. 

Reconstruction of life. See Life, 
reconstruction of. 

Reciting, 283. 

Reflex, hardly modifiable, 29. 

Regret, 37. 

Resentment, referred to, 71-72; 
present in coercion, 78; hurts 
learning, 181. 


382 


Responsibility, sense of, needed in 
citizenship, 127; how. built, 130, 
213, 281, 323. 

Rewards. See Prizes. 

Ritual, effect of, 123-24. 

Russell, Dean J. E., referred to, 12. 


SR, defined, 22; illustrated, 44; 
in relation to set and readiness, 
27. See also Connection (or 
bond). 

Sabotage, of pupils, 83. 

Satisfaction, not same as pleasure, 
832. See also Effect, Law of. 

Satisfaction and Annoyance, Law 
of. See Effect, Law of. 

Scatterbrainedness, 118. 

School, function of, 921-29. ; shifting 
duty of, 254-71: - residuary lega- 
tee of duties, 261; ; present equip- 
ment supports extrinsic régime, 
293; not ordinarily adapted to 
moral education, 341. See also 
Curriculum; Out-of-school learn- 


ing. 

School spirit, 121. 

Science vs. common sense, 21; is 
changing civilization, 253, 264: 
teaching of, 308-9, 310. See also 
General science. 

Scientist, vs. teacher of science, 302- 
3 


SEE, 197-98, 209, 268. 

Self, essentially active, 150-51, 170, 
180; in relation to interest, 160- 
81 (Chapter NL) externality and 
internality, 161- 63, 180; self and 
choosing, 161-66; “torn. within,” 
163-64; consists of its interests, 
169, 176, 180; building of the self, 
169-70: -a, divided self, 170-71, 179, 
aval unified self, 172, 176, 181, "321: 
lower vs. higher, 172: broad vs. 
narrow, 173-74; relation to mind- 
set, 26-28. See also Selfishness. 

Selfishness, discussed, 173-74; built 
by parents and teachers, 322; 
how avoided, 151, 267-68. 

Sensitivities, how ‘built, 114-16, 
117-18, 337-38, 


INDEX 


Set (mind-set): set and readiness, 
25-26, 66 ff.; mind-set- to-an-end, 
26; mind-set and fe: 30, 
66-73 (Chapter V), 76-87; op- 
posed sets in coercion, 80-82, 86-— 
87; in wider problem ‘of method, 
99-119: mind-set and focal at- 
tention, 112; mind-set and in- 
terest, 30-31, 117, 1388-39, 141; 
influence on ‘marginal responses 
of, 184; influence on thinking, 
246; set and self, 181. See also 
Readiness, factor of. 

Shut-mindedness, 114-15. 

Simultaneous learnings, illustrated, 
8, 9-10; defined, 9; inevitable, 9; 
discriminated, 102-3: basis of 
method, 110; ‘psychology of, 110 
ff. Sce also Attendant learnings; 
Primary learning; Associate sug- 
gestions; Concomitants. 

Nocialization, defined, 317. 

Society, in relation to the individ- 
ual, 316-17. 

Solutions, earned vs. “handed out,” 
64. 


Spartan method, 109. 

Spoiling, discussed, 60, 96-97, 137, 
139, 149-53. 

Standards, 119. 

Steps (in purposeful act), discussed, 
203-6, 215; purposing, 204, 206, 
210, 212, 214: ; planning, 204, 212- 
14; executing, 204, 212, 214; 
judging, 205, 209, 212, 214, 215: 
inter-relations of steps, 205-6, 
215-16; helping others, 206. 

Stevenson, J. A. , referred to, 203. 

Study, defined, 280, 291; in case of 
extrinsic learning, 288-89 ; a life 
activity, 291. 

Subject-matter, defined, 272-76, 
281; contrasted with method, 5- 
7; in relation to child, 273: as 
experience, 274-75; as ‘ways-of- 
behaving, 275-80; ’ potential US. 
actual, 278-79; in relation to re- 
construction of experience, 281- 
82; two aspects of, 281-82: in- 
trinsic vs. extrinsic, 284-86, 299- 


INDEX 


93, 371; why intrinsic superior, 
987-90, 292-93; why extrinsic 
persists, 290, 293; psychologizing 
subject-matter, 309; fixed-quota 
schemes, 354-55, 371. See also 
Out-of-school learning. 

Subjects, school, differentiation of, 
247, 357-58; often artificial, 108- 
9. 

Success, a factor in learning, 62-63, 
69, 73-74, 196, 202; coercion and 
success, 83-84. 

Superstitions, referred to, 308. 

Synapse, referred to, 43; defined, 
45; in learning, 48-50. See also 
Neurone. 


Teacher, function of, 130, 154, 208, 
211-12, 214, 216, 221-22, 289-90, 
304-5, 331-32; authority of, 211; 
child vs. teacher purposing, 206- 
12, 247; teacher vs. child plan- 
ning, 212-14; felt as enemy, 58, 
290; bound from above, 214-15, 
289: influence of extrinsic sub- 
ject-matter on, 288-89, 293; of 
science, 303. 

Teaching, process of, discussed, 
280, 282; logical vs. psychological 
order, 304-9. 

Terms, use of, 103-4. See also 
General terms. 

Tests and measures, scientific: favor 
certain learnings, 106-8; unwise 
use of, 107-8. 

Textbooks, often on extrinsic basis, 
293; in purposeful activity, 360. 

Thinking, essence of, 224, 232, 233; 
helps learning, 35, 36-38; rela- 
tion to meaning, 223-224, 230; 
how evoked, 67-68, 235-36; an 
adventure, 224, 230, 232-33, 234, 
248; reliability of, 224-26, 230, 
235, 248, 249-50; related to ac- 
tion, 38, 186, 249; purpose and 
thinking, 68; words and think- 
ing, 226-31. See also Complete 


383 


Actof Thought; Problem; Organ- 
ization; Meaning; Deliberation. 

Thorndike, E. L., referred to, 20, 
Ant 153, 160, 179; quoted, 146, 
170. 

Traits, as intermediate objectives, 
363-64, 366. 

Transfer of training, referred to, 
115, 130-31, 323-24. 

Truthtelling, teaching of, 54 ff. 


Unreadiness, for thwarting activi- 
ties, 67, 73. See also Readiness. 

Unselfishness, how built, 323-24. 
See also Selfishness. 

Urge, inner vs. outer, 66-67; inner, 
72, 93, 1382. See also Interest; 
Purpose. 

Use and Disuse, Law of. See Exer- 
cise, Law of. 


Watson, John B., referred to, 32. 

Ways-of-behaving, as common de- 
nominator between child and sub- 
ject-matter, 275-76; as subject- 
matter, 275-76, 292; in arith- 
metic, 275-76; in geography, 
276; as criterion of curriculum 
content, 276-77, 292; as criterion 
of learning, 277. See also Sub- 
ject-matter. 

White, E. E., referred to, 177. 

Wider problem of method, defined, 
1-18 (Chapter I); discussed, 99- 
119 (Chapter VIII), 120-35 
(Chapter IX); ethical and philo- 
sophical, 17-18; the problem of 
life, 108-9. See also Narrow 
problem of method; Method; 
Coercion; Attendant learnings. 

Wit, 190, 197-98, 209, 268. 

Will, discussed, 52, 174-75, 181; 
will training, 175-76. 

Winnetka plan, referred to, 354-55; 
group work in, 356. 

Woodworth, R.8., referred to, 33, 
48, 49; on use of interest, 168. 








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